Persona: Parallel Paradox
by Mahou Shoujo-nin
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto find themselves in Inaba after an incident. Naruto lost his memories and Sasuke is just trying to figure exactly what is going on. However, murder brings them both into a mystery which could seemingly help them find Naruto's memories. Yet, there's more going on in both Inaba and Konoha than meets the eye or even what one can understand. Tri-crossover. Not-yaoi.
1. Ch 1: I Lost My Beads

Author Note: Alright. This is the rewrite to Persona: Innocent Fate. Now, I don't know my exact schedule of how I am going to do things for updates and all yet since I am still figuring out my own career as a graphic designer and artist. I will at least try a chapter a month. I am posting three chapters with publishing this rewrite and the next update will be two chapters to be caught up with where I left off in the original. I won't have author notes on the next two chapters since I am posting three chapters, but I hope you enjoy this story as much as I had with writing it. The endnote will be on Ch. 3 instead of one on Ch. 1 or 2. Also, please do not spoil what the acronym PMMM is till Chapter 5 if you know what it is. Thank you.

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not own the series with the acronym PMMM. They belong to their owners and this is just fanfiction. I am referring to one series through the acronym to not spoil the rewrite and plot due to it becoming a tri-crossover. If you spoil it for others, shame on you.

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Ch.1 "I Lost My Beads"

"…Huh?" Sasuke blinked as he found himself sitting in a strange blue room. The lights from the narrow, yet long windows of the same room showed that the room was connected to something that was moving.

"Welcome… to the Velvet Room." Sasuke focused his attention forward to find a strange balding man with a long pointed nose and ears in front of him sitting on an elegant couch. On the couch next to the man was a young woman in a blue dress that matched the room and seems really pale with matching pale blond hair and yellow eyes. "Ah… It seems we have two guests with an intriguing, intertwined destiny." The man chuckled as Sasuke raised an eyebrow before looking to his side.

Next to Sasuke was a boy the Uchiha knew, Uzumaki Naruto... Well, at least, who Sasuke thought was Naruto due to the dark shadows causing the boy's colors to be quite off. Some lines of a glowing, eerie color seem to be scribbled on some parts of his body...But Sasuke just decided to guess it was an illusion thanks to the room's lighting.

"My name is Igor… I am delighted to make your acquaintance." Sasuke looked back at the man who had a creepy smile on his face. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter…"

"A… contract?" Sasuke frowned, wondering if this guy was high on drugs.

"It seems one of you have formed such a 'contract'... The other has yet to make one." Igor chimed. "Now then… Why don't you introduce yourselves…?"

"I am Uchiha Sasuke…And what is going on? Last I remember-" Sasuke stopped, realizing his memory was pretty hazy. He could remember getting in trouble with Naruto, also being forced to clean the mess the trouble the blond had cause. But, even that was a blur with only remembering something grabbing Naruto after he pushed him out of the way and both of them being dragged into a television being at least clear.

"…I… can't remember." Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock with wondering what he meant before noticing the boy's face. It was indeed blank, as if he had no idea what to express and it was then he realized what Naruto was asking.

"What are you talking about? You're Uzumaki Naruto…." Sasuke blinked, wondering what has gotten into Konoha's number one prankster. Was he also suffering from an even hazier memory loss than him?

"…" Naruto only frowned and looked down.

"Hm… I see… Now, let's take a look into your future, shall we?" Sasuke glared at Igor, wanting to know what was wrong with Naruto as well as his own memories. However, he was shocked when the man's hand had glowed and some cards in a small deck appeared on the table before him. "Do you believe in fortune telling?" The man asked before moving his hand over the table for the cards to form into a diamond pattern on the table. "Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different…" The man chuckled again. "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"

"…I… think so…" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Naruto, but watched as the man flipped the first card over.

"Hm… The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future… Or is it now present that has just happened?… Well, it seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent." Sasuke's eyes widen, remembering them being dragged into the television... But by what, he had no clue. "The card indicating the future beyond that is…" Igor flipped another card. "The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents 'hesitation' and 'mystery'… Very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you both. In the coming days, you shall fully come to understand the contracts you have both made, after which you both will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny… If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen." With a wave of his hand, the cards disappeared from before Igor. "Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you. This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself." Igor pointed at the woman.

"My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you both through your journey both of you will be going on." The woman said in a mannerly tone.

"We shall attend to the details another time… For you both still need to reach your destination… Until then, farewell…" Igor said with a grin before everything faded into black for both of the boys.

Sasuke sat up, hearing a cheerful tune while seeing white all around. _"I'm tired of diets! Enough with the gym! Good thing there is something even I can handle!" _A teenage female voice said as Sasuke noticed a door open. Across the hall was a television on a table next to a desk where nurses and doctors were busy at work. It had a girl in a bikini holding a can up to her cheek. _"Cool down this summer with Quelorie Magic."_

Sasuke watched at the image shifted to several people in formal suits. He ignored it as it about some scandal involved a politician, singer, and new reporter. Instead, he focused back to the room he was in. It was a hospital room... But nothing like he remembered back when... that day happened. The machines here were a bit more advance and simpler than what he remembered. The room was also not as stale, seeming more... static?... He could not get the exact idea of the shift from the room he remembered before and this one. However, it still gave him a bitter taste in his mouth as slight memories of the past hit him.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked aloud, remembering the boy. He noticed the boy facing the wall away from him, seemingly holding something. "Naruto?" Sasuke asked, getting out of the bed and realizing he was in pajamas. They weren't his own, but he rather be dressed than the other options. He walked over to the boy. "Hey, you alright?" Sasuke asked, putting his hand onto blond's shoulder. "Huh?" Sasuke gasped, his pupils shrinking as fuzzy images of two people struggling along with a quick clear image of the two people he saw before waking up flashed past his eyes.

"...What is it?" Sasuke shook his head, coming back to reality and seeing the boy now facing him. Sasuke knew for sure it was Naruto with seeing the whisker like birthmarks on the boy's cheeks. However, he did noticed the boy's hair was longer and oddly messy on the right side for some reason. "Oh, you. Are you alright?"

Sasuke studied Naruto's body, noticing his eyes somewhat lacking the life he always seen in the prankster's eyes before. He also looked paler and had a very lax air around him... Akin to an air of someone aloof, yet not serious as one who is aloof usually is. Basically, a child lost in the middle of nowhere with no idea of the concept of fear or hope. "Wait. I should be asking you that, Naruto!" Sasuke snapped back, remembering his concern while gripping the boy's shoulders.

"Is that... really my name?" Sasuke blinked at the blond, but then recognized Naruto's eyes.

'Just like me...' Sasuke thought, remembering seeing those same eyes on himself when he was younger... Just after losing all those he cared for by the hands of the one he cared the most for. A look of being lost and having no idea where to go. Before the anger and pain fully set in, his eyes had a void looked in him as if no life was in him. "You... don't remember anything?... Konoha? The academy?... Being an id... a prankster?" Sasuke asked, then noticing the boy was holding a radio.

"...No... I do remember some things." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blond. "I did not lose all my beads."

"Beads?" Sasuke asked, wondering if he meant "Losing all his marbles."

"I remember some things... But... Even I don't know what I am now." Naruto sighed, putting the radio down on the shelf. "'Hope and despair must always be balanced... Though... How is it balanced for me?"

"..." Sasuke looked at Naruto weirdly. "Um... Naruto... What the hell are you talking about?... Did losing your memory mess with your mind as well?" Sasuke asked, though now wondering what exactly happened to them both. They were both in the hospital. They also were seemingly unharmed, just some cuts and scrapes from some bandages on both their arms. Yet, he can't remember where they were past being dragged into the television which even that he was unsure was real.

"No... In fact, I at least confirmed the memories I still have are indeed real. But, what confuses me is what dragged us into the television. Where we were was not what I thought it was and I have a feeling this might not even be the world we know." Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock. "The laws... are not the same. They are similar to before they changed in the world you and I knew... Yet not..."

"The laws?" Sasuke asked before hearing voices from the hallway.

"…So, let me get this straight… These two just appear out of nowhere onto the police's outdoor radio and electrical equipment with only minor injuries… One of which keeps saying this weird story about being dragged into a television and being chased by monsters." An adult with short dark brown hair and narrow matching eyes sighed in annoyance. His dark coat draped over his shoulder. He was wearing a red tie loosely held his dark blue dress shirt in place which matched his dark pants. He was standing outside the door with a doctor. "Sounds more like they should be sent to the psych ward than to my home or going to school."

"Yes… I did a quick exam on both boys and it seems one has almost complete amnesia and the other has suffer a traumatic event which could have caused him to make up this lie." The doctor sighed, looking at the man before him. " However, it could also be from the stress of the situation. We had to use sedation the last few days to keep the pain from the burns and such down as they recovered to the level they are now at. Though, we managed to at least somewhat figure out their identifies. They are probably from one of the more isolated villages of Japan. Though, which one will take a while due to the quake has all the files and such for those villages in a mess at the main offices... I would not be surprise if these two were the victims of human trafficking. In fact, how the dark hair boy became somewhat confused is probably how he became orphaned. The lack of memory for the other boy might have come from whatever accident they were in before they were found."

"I see." The man sighed, rubbing his stubble beard he was starting to form. "Any clues they given on what happened to them? I mean, not every day kids are dumped on a small radio dish and tower."

'Dish and tower?...Though, if it is a high power radio, then ow...I know some radios take a lot of power from what I see at Nekobaa's place.' Sasuke thought, remembering also when one of the house at the Uchiha compound went up in flames due to electrical issues.

"Not much. Though, from what they mumbled about, I best guess was kidnapping and being dragged into the television was actually simply how their minds tried to put everything together. The kidnappers probably used a television as way to distract them and then take them by surprise. Though, we might not know for sure as even though they managed to escape getting zap with hundreds of kilo-watts, their memories are probably not reliable. This is proven with the blond who remembers very little. He couldn't even remember his name." The man looked at the doctor with a raised eyebrow. "Though, they might have run away from an orphanage from the way they are acting. It's clear they were at least independent which I fear might finding where they really are from will be harder."

"So, are they awake?" The man asked while walking into the room, before seeing both Sasuke and Naruto there looking at him. "Ah, good. Hey, could you get the paperwork done for their release?" The doctor nodded before leaving. "Well, hello. I am Detective Dojima Ryotaro."

"Um... Hello." Sasuke slightly bowed, though pale with realizing who the detective was talking about. 'Damn... My life was almost wiped out.' Sasuke looked at detective in the face. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke... This is Naruto... Um, could you tell us where we are at and what is happening."

"Sure. Though, could you tell me first what you remember?" Ryotaro asked, adjusting his tie slightly.

"All I can remember is being dragged into a television by something... What, I don't know or even if Naruto and I were really dragged into the television... Though, I will confirm some things the doctor was trying to guess at. Both Naruto and I are orphans, but our village has orphans over the age of ten live on their own on pensions due to a bad... event caused an overflow in the orphanages in the village. They still keep check on us, but it is the best they could due to the backlog. In fact, when we were dragged into the television was after finishing up cleaning up a fence Naruto vandalized and I got punished with trying to stop him and made a bigger mess. We were both heading to our homes when the incident happened." Sasuke sighed, somewhat annoyed with remembering much of that "incident." However, he keep back some information, not knowing where they were at. They could be in a part of the world Konoha natives are not too welcomed.

"I understand. Though I would go against such a move, it is a smart idea. I would not be surprised if some of the more isolated villages will be doing a similar thing due to the bad earthquake we had a few weeks ago." Ryotaro said, flicking his lighter though not lighting the cigarette in his mouth. "Well, you two are very lucky kids. We found you on top of the police station when the power suddenly went out for the station. You were both exposed to a high amount of electricity, but came out alright considering what usually happens."

"Yeah... So, where are we?" Sasuke asked, somewhat nervous as to how the two of them survived. Electricity is a deadly force, hence why villages were always careful with where they put power lines due to ninja using the roofs for travel.

"Yasoinaba or Inaba for short. Though, if your are from a small village, you probably don't know where this place is." Ryotaro said while pulling out a notebook, taking notes.

"Yeah. I mainly know only Konoha." Sasuke sighed, somewhat lying as he memorized most of the names of the villages in Fire Country and some of other countries. Inaba is not a village he knew.."

"Konoha, huh? Never heard it here in Japan, but again, probably a really isolated village." Sasuke nodded, though now looked at Naruto.

'I know there is no country in the world known as Japan... Naruto... Are you right?' Sasuke thought, pondering on the consequences and issues of the current situation.

"Yes..." Sasuke jumped with hearing Naruto speak. "However, why are you here?... I don't think they would send a detective to speak to us when an officer should have been enough."

"Actually, with this small town, they would send me for just something like this." Ryotaro said with some annoyance at the thought. "But, your right that I am here for more than getting your side of the story. Due to situation and the mystery of how you two got up on the police station, you will be staying in Inaba during the investigation. Since I have room at my place, I got stuck with the job of being your guardian till we can figure out what is going on. You're clothes were pretty torn up, there's some new ones we got you close to size in that bag there." Sasuke noticed a shopping bag right near the door. "Though, before changing... Can you give me as much information on you both... Like age, grade in school, and so one. Maybe even a job since you probably work to help with the stipend."

"As I said before, my name is Uchiha Sasuke. This Uzumaki Naruto. We are both twelve, There is no 'grade system' in the academy if I think you mean what level of schooling we are in, so the best I can stay is we were in the years allowing the possibility to graduate. However, our school system works on getting out depending on skills and knowledge levels. You can graduate younger or older depending if you are a genius or a dunce due to having to pass a test to get out. We both lived alone and neither of us have a job, though the reason for our academy is it allows us into a similar system to internship as soon as we graduate. I lost my parents and other family in a bad incident a few years back while Naruto I do not know how he was orphaned. I am at the top of my class while Naruto was deadlast."

"Seriously?" Ryotaro asked, his eyes widening. "But, you both passed to be 2nd years in high school. You were slightly out of it, but some idiots gave you the wrong papers as we guessed right and your age is closer to middle school age." Sasuke blinked, shocked at that news.

"I am good at math and science." Both looked at Naruto, jumping due to how quiet he has been. "I think that was what kept me in the academy since isn't it also graded through the skills... We also learn than just core lessons taught to every class?" Naruto asked while Sasuke nodded, realizing Naruto was asking more if he was correct than reassuring the facts.

"Yeah. A majority of the grading comes from skills we learn for the job field we chosen. We were both in the militia class. It's more of "hands-on jobs" type career for police work and other public sector jobs since there isn't much need for a militia. Though we keep up with fighting styles and weapon training... Hence why I am confused to how someone kidnapped us as we are both pretty aware of our surroundings..."

"Ah, I see. Like a military school. Though, I can see how that could make quite a gap in skills. Being a detective is the same way, some of us are better at investigating while others are good at organizing the information found in such investigations."

"Hai. Other than that, we are two normal boys... Well, as normal as two boys who survived getting zapped." Sasuke sighed, trying to end the probe into their lives. He did not want to give too much information. Mainly with the fact if Naruto was right... He did not want to think what would possibly happen since he had no clue how this "world" is like.

"I see. Well, Sasuke-san, you will be attending school tomorrow since you were cleared for released. Sadly, other than what we got you to change into, your school uniform is all you will have to wear till we can go clothes shopping for both of you."

"Wait? Why me and not Naruto?" Sasuke asked, a bit annoyed with finding out he was going to school. Sure, he was still in the academy, but a civilian school is probably a more boring than the academy lectures.

"He has to wait for his glasses to come in." Sasuke's eyes widen. "Though, I don't get how you get around with being so badly nearsighted."

"Wait... What?" Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock.

"I wore contacts due to the issues of the job field I was planning to go to. Though, they were poor quality and hard on my eye, so used only when I really needed them. Sasuke did not know about my eyesight due to the contacts."

"I see. Well, we can only cover for glasses, so you will have to deal with those. They should be in a few days. You're lucky though you didn't lose an eye. You will have to keep those bandages on till around when your glasses come in for the wound near your eye."

"Is there anything remaining of our old clothes?" Naruto asked, while Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, yeah, all we could really save is a coat and shirt. There in the bag." Ryotaro said as Naruto went to where he pointed. Naruto reached into the bag and pulled out the orange coat Sasuke always saw Naruto wearing. It was alright, though slightly beaten up. "Is that your jacket?"

"Yes... It's something dear to me... Even though I can't remember exactly why." Naruto sighed, Sasuke noticing some relief in the boy's eyes.

'How did you become an orphan?' Sasuke thought, pondering more about Naruto. Other than the boy being quite a loudmouth class clown... Sasuke knew up to nothing about the blond... Then again, he knew hardly anything about his other classmates due to distancing himself from them. All for the sake of revenge, he had to focus on his goals... But, how can he focus on such a goal when he might even be in another world?

"Well, get dress. I got to pick up my kid. She's half your age." Sasuke nodded before pushing Naruto in the bathroom connecting to the room the change. "... Well, at least Nanako won't be as lonely." Ryotaro sighed, wondering what it would be like with two extras in his home before hearing something move. "Huh?" Ryotaro looked to the shelf where a radio had been, but there was nothing on the shelf. "Wasn't there... Nah... Must have been my imagination." Ryotaro said, rubbing his nose with thinking he was exhausted. He never noticed the fact some of the small screws for a radio now laying on the shelf.

**-Television-**

"..." Sasuke was shocked with seeing things pass him by as Ryotaro drove his van through Inaba. He never been in a car, but did hear about them from some of his clan when they were still alive. They were more common in rich countries where roads were more developed. Konoha, on the other hand, only had beaten down dirt paths except for some areas.

"Well, though I don't think you are bad kids, I need to lay down some ground rules." Sasuke looked back at Ryotaro who did not take his eyes off the road before him. "I need you two to take care of yourselves. I am a busy guy and I already have a toddler on my hands. She's been through a lot, but I don't want you two to add onto the issues."

"Yes, sir." Sasuke said, understanding the situation. He looked at Naruto to see him just looking out the window. He was unable to tell if Naruto was memorized by the movement or simply in a trance from his poker face.

"Also, don't cause trouble to my daughter, Nanako." Ryotaro said with a frown. "I want you also to go to school and not get in trouble there as well. If you can cook, then that's good. Nanako can cook some, but I only let her cook breakfast and simple things since she is a still a toddler."

"Hai..." Sasuke sweated, trying to figure out the blond next to him. That and pondering if he acted the same way during his interactions with other classmates... It kind of crept him out with realizing that was possibly true.

"Though, I am curious, what all did your schooling covered? I know it is a militia type school, but I am curious."

"...Mainly over theories and such for battle. We cover fighting styles in spars and practicing sets. We also go over weapons, both theories and training, though mostly under instructors' watching. Other than that, our history in the village and probably the basics of what is covered in the schools here. Though, if you belong to a clan that served in the military of the village, you gain more knowledge as each clan has their own skills and fighting styles they have developed."

"I see... You're from a clan, too?" Ryotaro asked, looking at them both quickly in the mirror before looking back to the road.

"I did... Though, I am now the only one left..." Sasuke gripped his hands before relaxing. He could worry about the past later. The present was more important. If he could not get back to his world, then there was no point on focusing on revenge. "Naruto, I don't know much on other than he been an orphan longer than me."

"...I've been an orphan all my life... At least, I think." Sasuke jumped, shocked as Naruto finally looked forward. He did noticed some emotions in the boy's eyes, but he could not really read them due to his solemn expression

"Well... I know of the pain of losing someone dear..." Ryotaro said in a somber tone. "Though, try to enjoy your time in Inaba. I won't be that strict since you both probably can handle yourselves on your own... Oh... We're here." Ryotaro said while stopping, allowing a young girl wearing a pink outfit to run up to the car and get into the front seat. "Hey, Nanako, how was the meeting at school?"

"It was okay..." The girl meekly said while closing the door and buckling up. She then noticed the two boys in the backseat. "Um..." Nanako looked down, somewhat shy.

"Oh, yeah... Sorry about that. Nanako's a bit sh-IE!" Nanako got a left jab into Ryotaro's rips, making Sasuke flinch with knowing how that had to hurt... Even if the jab came from a 6 year old. "Heh... Sorry... Well, Nanako, meet Sasuke and Naruto. They are the two boys I told you about."

"Oh... Hello..." Nanako tried her best to turn around and did a slight bow with her head.

"They'll be staying with us till my department can figure out where they live."

"I see..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow as the girl looked down.

"Well, let's get home. I bet you three are famish." Sasuke shook his head at the poor humor as Ryotaro got the car moving again. Sasuke took noticed more of the buildings of Inaba, seeing many differences to the village he knew. While Konoha did have some square dimension buildings, almost all of Inaba were that style with also paved roads. It was odd for at least Sasuke who was used to seeing trees or a bush every few feet due to Konoha's affinity to forest, hence it was named "Village Hidden in the Leave." However, Ryotaro stopped at a gas station on the way home...Though, Sasuke could not figure out what substance was named after flatulence.

"Hi! Welcome to Moel!" The gas attendant shouted as they parked.

"Can you go to the bathroom by yourself?" Ryotaro asked his daughter who had to go to the restroom.

"Uh-huh." Nanako nodded as her father got out as well as she did. The attendant noticed Nanako looking around.

"It's in the back, to your left. You know which way's left? The side you don't hold your chop sticks." The attendant smiled at Nanako who pouted at the attendant.

"I know… Geez…" Nanako ran to the restroom Sasuke and Naruto got out of the car, feeling a little claustrophobic. Sasuke was a bit uneasy, probably due to trying to take everything in and not used to moving in something that did not jolt as much as a cart.

"Are you taking a trip?" The attendant asked, noticing Sasuke and Naruto.

"No, these two are going to be under my care for some time. From what they say, they are from a city." Ryotaro said with a smile. Remembering how they boys said their village was around the size of Inaba, but had a lot of trees which made it seem much smaller with seeing Inaba first hand in the car.

"The city, huh?"

"Fill up my car while you're at it. Regular's fine," Ryotaro said.

"Right away, Sir!" The attendant chimed happily.

"Good a time as any for a smoke." Ryotaro sighed while walking off to smoke.

"Are you two in junior high school?" The attendant asked Sasuke and Naruto.

"No, just high school." The attendant looked at them both in shock.

"Well, does it surprise a pair of city boys like you to see how little there is out here?" The attendant sighed with some annoyance. "There's so little to do, I'm sure you'll get bored fast. You'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs. Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part-time help right now. Though, don't know if they hire someone your age, but give it some thought, why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student." The attendant walked up to Sasuke and held out her hand. Sasuke grabbed it and shook it for only a moment when Naruto grabbed the attendants wrist and pulled him away from Sasuke. "Whoa!" The attendant noticed the stern glare the blond was giving him from behind his bangs.

"Ack! No, Naruto!" Sasuke grabbed both the attendant's wrist and Naruto's and made them shake hands. "That's a greeting. It's called a handshake."

"…Oh…. Sorry…" Naruto looked down as Sasuke sweated with how the boy sounded disappointed.

"Please excuse my friend… He isn't so good with interacting with people." Sasuke bowed in apology.

"No… Problem…" The attendant rubbed her wrist. "Though you got quite a grip there… Oh! I should get back to work." The attendant walked off to go pump the gas when Sasuke and Naruto noticed the pink dress wearing girl that was Nanako staring at them. However, suddenly they both felt dizzy.

"Are you two okay?" Nanako asked with worry. "Did you get carsick? You don't look too good…"

"Maybe… It is the first time Naruto and I rode in a car." Sasuke sighed, guessing it was delayed motion sickness.

"What's wrong? You okay?" Dojima asked, noticing the two boys pale as he walked up.

"Just a bit lightheaded." Sasuke sighed, finding himself quite dizzy and his head aching.

"That's understandable. I been informed by the doctors that you might experience some symptoms from the trauma... Add the fact you probably never rode in a car... Why not take a little walk, get some fresh air? Just let me know when you're ready to go." Dojima said, nodding to the boys in understanding.

"Sure!" Sasuke dragged Naruto off, not wanting to miss taking advantage of a quick look at the town. They walked down the road, finding several shops. Some of which were old and wearing down. However, it did give Sasuke an idea of how the town was like. Many of the shop keepers in shops still open were seemingly nice and elder. However, some shops were sparse while some buildings were closed down.

Yet, there was still some country-side charm in the street. There were two light hair siblings in front of a liquor store fussing about a meal the brother had left in the fridge and his sister had eaten. Elderly people were walking about, complaining about a "Junes" causing the shopping district to become the way it has became. If it weren't for the paved road and streets, electricity poles, and the buildings being more rectangular, it would seem the same as Konoha to Sasuke.

".. Hey." Both boys turned around, seeing a dark hair girl wearing a punk style school girl outfit picking up a piece of paper and holding it towards it. "You dropped this."

"Oh, thank you." Sasuke took it and sweated with realizing it was the address for the Dojima residence. 'That would not been good for me.' Sasuke thought, remembering Dojima gave them both the address to help them get back to his place when they go to the high school.

"Whatever. All I did was pick it up." The girl said, her body language giving an unfriendly air. Though, possibly due to not trusting the boys. However, the girl just left afterwards.

"She's the same as them."

"Huh?" Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion. "Same as who?"

"I don't know." Sasuke pouted at the blond. If he really acted this way to others before this who mess, he was definitely going to fix it before he leaves this place. "One sec..."

"What?" Sasuke eyes widen, confused by what happened before him. One second the blond was facing him, the next he was walking back towards the gas station. However, Sasuke did not look away or blink. It was as if the blond teleported. "N-Nani?" Sasuke rubbed his eyes in confusion. "H-How did you do that?"

"Hm? Do what?" Naruto asked, looking slightly back at Sasuke while still walking. Sasuke jogged up the blond, not wanting to be left behind.

"You just moved several feet from where you were before in an instant!" Sasuke said in shock, wondering if the blond had a bloodline.

"I just simply walked... You're mind must be still having some lag from all that has happened." Naruto said in a calm tone. "... I seem to be having similar moments."

"O-Ok..." Sasuke sheepishly laughed, wondering if he was indeed suffering from some brain damage since he head was still aching. However, it was not as bad as before as they reached the gas station.

"You two feeling better? Ready to get back in the car?" Sasuke nodded, ignoring the ache in his head while Naruto got himself in the car. After leaving the gas station, they went all the way to the Dojima's residence which was a simple two story house with a mix of traditional style building with more modern style housing.

**-Television-**

Evening came pretty quickly and the four was sitting around a small dining room table in the living room and eating take-out. Sasuke felt awkward due to having never eaten with anyone else for a while.

"All right, let's have a toast." Ryotaro chimed before they all raised their can of soda and drank from the cans. "Though, I bet you two haven't had a meal with someone else in a while. It's just Nanako and me here, but feel free to make yourself at home."

"Yes, sir!" Sasuke slightly jerked into attention, realizing Ryotaro was speaking to him. He was a bit stiff as he didn't know what to do in such a situation while Naruto just stayed quiet, also not knowing what to say.

"Uhh... Right." Ryotaro said, a little shock. "... Are you into miltary stuff?... Oh, right, military academy." Ryotaro chuckled at his own mistake. "Well, anyway… Let's eat."

However, a beeping noise came from Ryotaro. "Ugh… Who's calling at this hour?" Ryotaro took out his cell phone and answered it. "Dojima speaking..." Ryotaro got up and went away. "Yeah? I see… So where is it?... All right, I'm on my way. Looks like I made the right choice to skip the booze." Ryotaro hung up and put his cell phone back into his pocket. "Sorry, but I gotta go take care of some business. Go ahead and eat without me. I don't know how later I'll be. Nanako, you help them out, okay?" Nanako got up and nodded.

"Okay…" Nanako sighed in disappointment.

"Oh! Almost forgot!" Ryotaro looked back at Naruto and Sasuke. "I bought each of you a cell phone. They are charging on the counter. Just read the manual to figure out how they work." Ryotaro sighed before walking out of the house. "Nanako, it's raining out. What did you do with the laundry?"

"I already brought it in!" Nanako shouted back.

"All right. Well. I'm off." Ryotaro shouted back before leaving and they heard the car turn on and leave. Nanako sat back down and turned on the television.

"—_for this week. Next, let's take a look at the hourly breakdown of tomorrow's weather. With storm clouds moving in from the west, expect rain throughout the day tomorrow in most areas."_

"…Let's eat…" Nanako sighed, seemingly use to her father running out.

"Um… What does your dad do?" Sasuke asked, trying to break the awkward silence. At least he could see why Naruto used to be such a loud mouth. The silence was just suffocating when there was other people around as well as when no one was around. He already knew Dojima was a detective, but she might now what kind of detective.

"He… investigates stuff. Like crime scenes. My dad's a detective." Nanako chimed before the news came in. Which Sasuke hide his disappointment of finding nothing else on Dojima with a smile back at the girl.

"_And now for the local news… City council secretary Namatame Taro is under fire for an alleged relationship with a female reporter. His wife, enka ballad sensation Hiiragi Misuzu, revealed to this station that she will likely pursue damages. In response, Eye Television has decided to cancel all of announcer Yamano Mayumi's televised appearances. Until allegations of an affair with Mr. Namatame are resolved, she'll remain off the air and out of public eye."_

"…This is boring." Nanako sighed, changing the channel for it to hit a commercial.

"_At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes!"_

"Every day's great at your Junes!" Nanako happily sung.

"Every day's great at your Junes?" Naruto sung as well, though cocking his head confusedly.

"Are you okay?…Aren't you going to eat?" Nanako asked, noticing neither of them had touched their food. Both jumped and quickly went to eating. Once done and helping Nanako clean up, Naruto and Sasuke went upstairs to the room the Dojima's were letting them use.

"…Naruto… We… did go through the television and end up in that strange world?" Sasuke asked as Naruto gotten the futons ready.

"Yes... Though, exactly how I do not know... I have an idea, but I rather confirm it before saying." Naruto sighed, looking at Sasuke once having got both futons out.

"You remember more of what happen then me... So... What exactly happen?" Sasuke asked, tired from what has transpired. They were both indeed in another world they did not belong to, though the process somehow landed them on the outside electrical equipment of the police station. It also left Sasuke with a hazy memory of what caused them to end up there and Naruto missing a great deal of his memories, changing his personality in the process. Also, a lot of things just did not add up for the Uchiha as the world, at least in this town, was purely civilian, no ninja or any kind of special abilities.

"Promise you will believe me, even if it sounds farfetched?" Naruto sighed, sitting onto the futon.

"Sure... Anything is possible at the moment with all that has happened." Sasuke said, resting his chin in his hand. He was possibly going senile from what he saw earlier with Naruto teleporting due to possible brain damage. He was up for anything now.

"We were pulled in television for sure... But, I don't exactly what it was that pulled us in...It tried to eat you." Sasuke paled, now understanding what the doctor meant by one of them saying one of them were saying monsters were chasing them. "I fought it off... But... Yet... Somehow..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the odd expression in Naruto face as he tried to say something, yet was blushing slightly for some reason. "During the battle... I lost my beads."

"You're beads? Don't you mean your memories?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Yes... I... had my memories stored in beads." Sasuke's eyes widen at what Naruto said, though he knew it was not impossible. He knew how powerful sealing techniques were along with some people had skills in entering people minds. Though, how Naruto got someone to seal his memories in beads, he had no clue as there were not many seal masters or at least he knew of at the possible level to seal memories. "These were all I managed to save before the fog lifted." Naruto showed Sasuke no more than ten beads on a string in his hand. All of them were violet, but had off swirl black lines on them.

"When the fog lifted?" Sasuke asked, wondering what that meant. However, he at least knew one thing. Naruto had a chance to get his memories back.

"When the fog lifted, I was able to see we were in a strange area... I can't exactly explain it as it is a place I never seen before, but it had a lot of lights and odd metal beans... But, more creatures like the one that tried to eat you attack us. You were knocked out and barely recovered from the first one and I had to rush to get you out of there... But something hit me and I hit another television screen, blacking out from pain which I guess was when we landed on the police station."

"I see... That... would explain why I don't remember much." Sasuke frowned, looking down. 'So, he saved me at a cost... If I wasn't there...'

"Don't blame yourself for my beads." Sasuke gave Naruto a blank look, who kept a straight face. "It was the risk I had made, though why I cannot remember. However, what is important is that you are safe. The promise I have not broken yet is that I will protect the people around me, no matter their views on me." Naruto held his hands together, looking at them with a serious look to his eyes.

"So, you really took becoming a ninja serious, just not the schooling." Sasuke somberly smiled, understanding now Naruto's behavior.

"Um... I think... I remember nothing from the academy." Naruto admitted, looking away with a slight frown. "What I remember is mainly technical stuff. Not so much 'memories' but things I should know. Hence why I remember I was good at science and math. I can make bombs." Naruto said with a straight face.

"Real or prank?" Sasuke asked, paling at the thought of the blond prankster having explosives.

"Both. I also can do timer bombs, fireworks, and various different explosives ranging from smoke screens to high power-"

"Too much information." Sasuke sighed while holding his hand to get Uzumaki to stop, though making note never to get on the blond's bad side. He would very much like to keep his property and belongings in one piece. "However, you mentioned laws before. What was that about?" Sasuke changed the subject, not wanting to think of the class clown with any kind of explosive.

"...Even though taking into fact what happened to us well and most of memories are missing... I do not know how to explain this without sounding... Er..." Naruto bit his lip, trying to think of the word.

"Crazy?" Sasuke asked, confused of the blond's change in behavior. But, then again, he never paid much attention to it till now.

"No... Surreal might be a better word." Sasuke wondered if the blond even knew what the word "Surreal" meant. "I won't go into it much... Mainly because trying to explain it would too much to understand in one sitting, especially since I myself don't have all the information. The simplest and best way I can think I can say it is that all worlds have laws... I am not referring to actual laws humans use to keep peace... These are more akin to that of physics and base beliefs of religions have on certain things akin to physics."

"So, basically, like if our world had a 'law' of higher gravity and this one was lower, we would feel it?" Sasuke asked as an example. However, he could get why Naruto used the word to explain what he was trying to say. For people from one world where ninja was a common to now a world where there is no ninja would indeed be "surreal."

"Correct. Some laws are completely unknown to the masses and not as easily seen as more common ones like physics. Some of which these laws are control everything from behind the scenes." Naruto said.

"Behind the scenes?" Sasuke asked, curious of this. Could this relate to the Uchiha Massacre? The more he seen in this world, the more he wondered past revenge... and realizing a lot of things he was possibly missing out. That and missing straight before him. The fact Naruto seemed more than just a deadlast ninja student for one.

"Yes. As a student of a job profession which does a lot of behind the scenes work, it is probably easier for you to understand. However, it goes deeper than that... Tell me, when you were in that place, the Velvet Room, how did you feel?" Naruto asked, his poker face seeming to be that of a pro.

"Mad." Sasuke huffed, remembering before in that room. At least he knew that room was not exactly a dream. Though, thinking back, he was furious. That man seemingly knew a lot, but barely gave them any information.

"I don't think you should." Sasuke's eyes widen in shock. "It seems he is an ally of sorts. He knows we have possibly been placed onto the chessboard by those hidden laws." Sasuke looked at Naruto who simply had a blank look. "The fact he can seemingly glimpse at the future possibilities of our choices proves it and his mission statement to keep us straying from the path."

"Path? What does he mean by that?" Sasuke scoffed, still a bit skeptic of the balding man.

"There is no such thing as fate... However, as a common law of all worlds, the past, present, and future is always connection some way." Naruto said, pointing at the clock in the room. "Though people call this fate, it is not. This is more of a path. As you walk through time, you behind a trail which is the path to the past. The future choices you are to make are the forks in the path. Your present is simply path your created from past choices and the future choices that are offered to you. Some of those choices you cannot control due to outside forces, but much of the path which people refers to as fate and destiny is of your own choosing."

"War?" Sasuke said aloud, though realizing some examples of what he cannot control. Though he did not know why he thought of it. "War is like one of those changers?"

"In the normal society, yes. However, there is also those hidden laws that also can affect it. For example, you worship of deity that will always grant you strength for praying to him. You pray all the time and gain strength, but then you fail and spite that god... What do you think would happen?" Sasuke gulped, realizing where Naruto was going. "Though, unlike what people think, one's path also can contain quite a bit of potential energy... In fact, so much with some could become possibly gods or simply end the world as everyone knew it."

"Seriously?" Sasuke asked, wondering what Naruto meant by gods and the world ending.

"In our world, the laws...were like this world minus we have some different things... But, the laws changed some which no longer work the same." Naruto sighed, holding his hand out while flopping back. He look at a symbol on his middle finger's nail. It was the shape of a sphere in violent coloring. "This world is still in the old law system... Or at least close to what my technical memory remembers... Though, if this world is due to a change of laws or end due to the failure of them... I don't know..."

"So... What is this law system?" Sasuke asked, somewhat curious of Naruto now. Though also freaked by the doom part. However, maybe this system could be used to get back Naruto's memories and him back home.

"It's basically the best I do not tell you." Naruto said, putting his arms down. "However, my warning to you... Be careful of what you wish for... What people don't realize is even a gift must be repaid someday... Nothing is truly free." Naruto said, all the while staring at the clock, watching as the second hand ticked by.

**-Elsewhere-**

"….So, no possible leads in the disappearance of Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto?" The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, sighed while smoking his pipe.

"No… It's been six weeks since they disappeared and we had yet to find a lead or proof another village would kidnap them." The ANBU in front of him sighed. "I am sorry."

"It is alright… I just hope both of them are alright." Hiruzen said while blowing out some smoke as the ANBU disappeared in smoke. He pulled out his crystal ball for his viewing jutsu. For the past six weeks, he had constantly tried his Tomegane no Jutsu to try and find Naruto and Sasuke, but to no avail as all he got was fog in the image… However, he was still worried and kept trying. He only hoped the two boys were alright, but knew all too well from his position that the possible outcomes for the two now were grim.

"…Huh?" Hiruzen blinked as even though it was still somewhat foggy, he now could see Naruto and Sasuke. Both were sleeping and seemed to be safe in a room. "…Finally, at least they are safe… Hm?" Hiruzen had the image zoom on Naruto, more on the blond's hand. He noticed a black bracelet on his left hand with two violet elegant swish marks going up his hand towards his middle finger.. "I wonder where that came from… But, why is the jutsu working now… Where are they?… Hm… And how to contact them as I now at least they are not in Fire Country." The Hokage pondered. Though, at least he didn't have to worry about the two boys as much now thanks to seeing they were safe. But, how they disappeared in the beginning was what he wanted to know as well as what caused the disappearance.


	2. Ch 2: What A Great First Impression

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not own the series with the acronym PMMM. They belong to their owners and this is just fanfiction. I am referring to one series through the acronym to not spoil the rewrite and plot due to it becoming a tri-crossover. If you spoil it for others, shame on you.

Edit-I mixed up the dates later in this chapter earlier and just fixed it to be correct.

* * *

Ch.2 "What A Great First Impression"

"..." Sasuke blinked as he woke up in a foggy place while kneeling. He stood up, finding all he could see was a stone path of red with black outlines while a thick fog engulfed the area. He noticed he was wearing the uniform he saw he was going to be wearing for high school. "Is this... a dream?" Sasuke asked aloud before looking to see where he could go. However, all he saw was he could go forward on the path, noticing the stones were square.

'Why is the path clear when everything else is in a thick fog?" Sasuke though, jogging down the path with not wanting to stay in one place for long. He remembered what Naruto said before with how they were in a foggy place when pulled into the television. The place was eerie, but compared to some of the nightmares he had from the Uchiha Massacre... It was a lot better.

He continued down the path before hearing a voice. "Do you seek the truth?" Sasuke heard... though, not exactly how as there seemed to be no exact voice. It was all over the place. Sasuke ran further down the path and heard the voice again. "If it's truth you desire, come and find me..."

'And you are annoying.' Sasuke thought while running ahead where the voice was coming from. 'But, what truth?... What has happened to Naruto and me?... Or...' Sasuke narrowed his eyes, wondering exactly what the voice was talking about. He stopped, finding a red and black striped square blocking his path. His sense someone ahead, so put his hand to the wall. He jumped back with seeing it slowly opened up from each layer of stripe square before exposing a very foggy area.

He ran forward to find himself before a figure, but could barely tell what it was except it was humanoid due to the fog. He suddenly felt something heavy in his hands and looked down to see himself holding a katana to his surprise. "So... You are the one pursuing me..." The voice spoke, coming from the figure before him. "Hmhmhm... Try all you like..." Sasuke gripped the katana, annoyed with the chuckle.

"Don't mess with me!" Sasuke jabbed the sword into the ground and made several hand signs. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke fired off a ball of fire from his mouth at the figure which dodge. "Hah!" Sasuke shouted, having ran towards where he expected the slight figure to dodge to and manage a hit, only for it to go right through the figure as it went backwards. 'What the?' Sasuke thought in confusion. 'Wait... That fireball should have lifted some of the fog, but it didn't do a thing!' Sasuke thought, noticing the fog not any lighter.

"Hmm... It seems that you can see a little, despite the fog..." The figure said with a slight chuckle.

'Physical attacks don't seem to work at all...' His eyes widen as he suddenly remembered something as a black card appeared before him, he grabbed it and crushed it. "Zio!" Sasuke shouted with no idea why he said it, but he felt a presence behind him and suddenly a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and hit the figure.

"I see... Indeed... That is very interesting information..." The figure said as Sasuke unleashed another bolt of lightning. "But... You will not catch me so easily... If what you seek is "truth," then your search will be harder..." Sasuke found suddenly the fog got much thicker, blocking out everything.

"Zio! Zio!" Sasuke shouted, unleashing another series of bolts towards where he thought the figure was before gritting his teeth, realizing he could see nothing but fog.

"Everyone see what they want to..." Sasuke grunted, collapsing to his knees as he became dizzy. He looked up and saw the ghostly image of a large humanoid being standing before him... As if standing between the hidden figure and himself. All he could mainly make out was the odd long sword it carried and it was wearing some kind of trench coat. "And the fog only deepens... Will we meet again...? At a place other than here... Hmhm... I look forward to it..." Sasuke heard as he began to lose consciousness, the white all around him turning into to black.

Sasuke heard a knock as he slowly regained consciousness. "Breakfast is ready." Sasuke blinked, his eyes adjusting for him to see he was in the room Naruto and he was staying it. He sat up, rubbing his aching head. "...What the hell of a dream was that?" Sasuke sighed, noticing Naruto already out of the room.

He looked at the clock and frown at the time. "I better get dress. No way I am going to go late to school... Even if this one will be worse than the academy." Sasuke got up, stretching as he walked towards his uniform before realizing something. 'Wait... I didn't hang it up...' Sasuke eyed the uniform hanging off the shelf, noticing it was neat and ironed. He also noticed the collar of the white shirt for it had embroidery of red and white fan with a black border to allow it to pop out on both sides. The emblem of his clan.

"What the hell?" Sasuke asked before shaking his head. 'Maybe I am just going insane...' Sasuke took the uniform down and quickly changed.

He walked down the stairs to find Nanako also dressed and placing a plate of sunny side up eggs with hash browns, sausage, and toast onto the table. "Good morning." Nanako chimed, oddly happy from what Sasuke saw the day before. She sat down as did Sasuke who only noticed two chairs for the table and a plate already set for him. "Okay. Let's eat."

"Did you do the cooking?" Sasuke asked, shocked at a six year old able to cook. Though, he was forced to learn when he left the orphanage at age ten.

"I can toast bread... and cook sunny-side up eggs in the morning..." Nanako blushed in embarrassment. "Dad can't cook, so I buy dinner... But, Naruto-san can cook. He made the hash browns and sausage for my Dad this morning when he stopped by real quick before rushing off due to something coming up. He won't probably be back for a bit."

"I see." Sasuke was also shocked by this. 'Naruto can cook?' Sasuke tasted what Naruto made and found at least Naruto was good at more than math, science, and explosives. "Where's Naruto?"

"He had to run somewhere, saying my Dad forgot some things." Nanako said before drinking some milk. "You're starting school today, right? My school's on the way, so... let's go together." Nanako smiled, seemingly happy to have someone with her. Though, Sasuke noticed she was also restless.

'Probably because I am a stranger to her still.' Sasuke thought, but nodded. Even though he had directions from Dojima to the school on the paper with Dojima's address... He was still new to this place. So, it would help with her showing him the way.

They both heard the door open and shut along with the sound of plastic rustling. "Who is it?" Nanako asked, Sasuke also wondering who it was since the person did not knock.

"It's me, Naruto." Naruto came into the room, once taking off his shoes. He was wearing a slightly big white shirt and some gray pants he remembered Dojima gave them for wearing till they went clothes shopping. "Good, I got back before you left, Sasuke."

"Really?" Sasuke asked, a bit confused.

"Dojima forgot to get our school supplies due to the call yesterday." Sasuke's eyes widen in shock, realizing he was about to go to school without any supplies. "Luckily, today is only a short day as the school season is starting, so you only need a few notebooks. However, I got some more as well as school bags for us both... Also a diary for both of us."

"A diary?" Nanako asked, though Sasuke was also confused.

"It's something to write into about your day at the end." Naruto explained to Nanako. "Sasuke and I were in an accident and the doctor told your father that a good way to recover is to write our days. The accident affected our memory a bit, so it would be a good exercise to help strengthen it again."

"Oh.. I see." Nanako nodded. "Aren't you going to school, too?"

"Sadly, not for a few days... My eyesight is bad...I have to wait for my glasses your Dad ordered for me to come in." Sasuke slightly smiled, realizing Naruto was speaking more than he did yesterday. "I washed your shirt with my jacket... But it shredded in the wash... I was able to savage the emblem, but sew a similar one on your dress shirts to make up for just saving this." Sasuke blinked, finding a blue band with the red and white fan emblem that was on the back of his normal shirts. He could not tell it was not an original part of the fabric due to how well it was sewn on.

"You can sew?" Sasuke asked, quite amazed by the blond. He wondered what all the "deadlaast" was really good at.

"Yes... It seems I can." Naruto said, confusing Nanako.

"And cook?" Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow. Questions came up in his mind on how the orphan could at least cook better than him. He was also an orphan and guy, so it was kind of hard to understand. The best he could do was cook rice, make breakfast, and some other dishes and even then his cooking was just barely okay to eat since he had no one to teach him.

"Hai... It seems I am a foodie, too... I made enough for also Nanako and you when I was just cooking for Dojima and me." Sasuke and Nanako sweated, wondering what a "foodie" was. "Though, I don't know what I am going to do for today ... I also clean up most of the house this morning..." Sasuke then noticed the house a bit more. It was not junky when Naruto and he came in yesterday... Though, it did show people did live there and not the cleanest place he has seen. However, now, everything was much neater and very clean while keeping its homey feel.

"Naruto... Were you secretly as stay-at-home dad?" Sasuke sheepishly joked, trying to break the awkward silence that had came up from Sasuke questioning the blond. He noticed Nanako a bit stiff as well.

"I don't know. I don't remember." Naruto said in a matter of fact tone, making the atmosphere even more awkward.

'Naruto... Just who ARE you?' Sasuke thought, his eyebrow twitching in discomfort. "O-Okay. Let's get to school, Nanako." Nanako nodded, though he could see she was completely lost on what had just happened.

-Television-

The classroom of Class 2-2 was abuzz with chatter and gossip of the new school year. Some students were greeting other classmates from the last year while others grouped around with friends.

"Ah... Talk about bad luck... The homeroom teacher here is Morooka, isn't it?" A student moaned in disappointment.

"Yeah, it's King Moron alright... We get to enjoy his long-ass sermons every day for a whole year..." Another student chimed in his own annoyance.

"Hey, you guys, I heard there's going to be some transfer students from the city in this class." A female student chimed to the two groaning students.

"Huh? Really? Guys or gals?" One of the boy's asked.

"Transfer students from the city..." A shirt hair girl wearing a green jersey asked out loud. "Just like you, huh, Yosuke?" The girl looked back at a fawn color hair boy who was laying atop his desk. "Huh? You look dead today."

"Yeah, um... I don't wanna talk about it..." The boy grumbled in pain, not even lifting his head up.

"What with him?" The girl asked the long hair girl in the desk before her. The girl had long black hair and wearing a red sweater with matching headband to keep her hair out of her eyes.

"Who knows?" The red wearing girl said, also confused. Everyone, however, faced forward and went to their desks with hearing the door open. A man wearing a dark blue suit with a light blue thin stripes, a yellow checker board tie, a bad short hair do, and, to top it off, horrible over cut teeth akin to a beaver walked in with a short dark hair student following him.

"Awright, shut your traps!" Sasuke tried not to flinch after the man next to him let out an anxious shout. "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward! First things first, Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons."

'Like I would since I am younger than everyone here.' Sasuke thought, holding back a sigh. He tried distracting himself from the speech with scanning the room. Everyone was at least four or so years older than him. However, many still had a young look in their faces compared to the teens he seen in Konoha who were ninja. Probably due to them not having been through some things like him...

'He's still in pain?' Sasuke thought, seeing the same boy he saw earlier while walking to school laying on his desk. He recognized the boy due to the orange headphones the guy had around his neck. Sasuke kept from flinching, remembering the poor dude happen crash on his two wheel contraction on the way to school, hitting the one weakness of all men.

"Long as I'm around, you students are going to be pure as the driven snow!" Sasuke noticed everyone sweated at the comment. "Now I hate wasting my time, but I'd better introduce this transfer student. This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage. And he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him! The same for his pal who will be here in a few days! Tell 'em your name, kid, and make it quick."

"You calling me a loser?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow at the teacher who looked at him with shock. "At least the teachers back at the academy at least had the audacity to first see if you were a loser or not before saying that." Sasuke said aloud, though not minding the warning he gave to the girls. He kind of liked the idea of girls not swarming him. Though, he was right on the academy teachers. Many were brutally honest on purpose to make sure those who were not ready either manned up or get out before they could hurt themselves. 'Sadly, with my class, many of the girls are too focused on me to realize that.' Sasuke then noticed the shock of the class before seeing the red face Mooroka.

"Hrnh... That's it, you're on my shit list effective immediately!" Sasuke slightly recoiled from the burst of anger from the teacher. "Now listen up! This town is miles away from your big city of perverts and assholes, in more ways than one! You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let alone abusing them!"

'You're the one who need to rethink the target.' Sasuke thought, managing to keep from reaching into his hidden kunai and shuriken pouch and murdering the guy right there. 'Calm down... Civilian...'

"But what do I know... It's not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast. Every time I turn my back, you're fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and your my-places." Sasuke's eyebrow twitched as Morooka kept droning on.

"Excuse me!" Though the voice of a girl usually annoyed Sasuke, it was an angel at this moment when a short hair girl raised her hand and stopped the motor mouth next to him. "Is it okay if the transfer student sits here?" The girl pointed at the empty seat next to her.

"Huh? Yesh, sure. Ya hear that? Your seat's over there." Mr. Morooka said, snapping from his lecturing mode. "So hurry up and siddown already!" Sasuke slowly walked to his seat, trying to calm down. He did not want to cause trouble for Dojima. 'Though, might not be able to... What a great first impression. I now have this teacher on my back.' Sasuke sat down, wondering how it would be with Naruto also in there... At least, the old one here remembered.

"He's the worst, huh?" The short hair girl whispered to him. "Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class... Well, we just have to hang in there for a year." Sasuke frowned, though hearing others talking around him.

"Man, he got balls to mouth off at King Moron."

"Is he a delinquent? He's kind of short to be one."

"Sucks to be the transfer student, ending up in King Morn's class on the first morning here..."

"Yeah, he won't think twice about suspending you if you get on his bad side. Then again, we're all in the same boat..."

"Shut your traps! I'm taking roll, and I damn well expect you to respond in an orderly manner!" Mr. Morooka shouted, getting everyone to shut up.

"What a great first impression." Sasuke whispered to himself, starting his new school life. Hoping it was indeed temporary and finding a way back to his world.

-Television-

"How do people see this as 'entertainment?'" Naruto groaned, barely paying attention to a game show on the television in Dojima's home. On the table, he had papers scattered with some clean and other with doodles ranging from plants, people, and such. "I hope my glasses come in soon... I think school would be better than this."

Naruto looked out of the screen glass doors to the Dojima's backyard. He noticed the rain had stopped and had thick fog all about. "This place is quite strange..."

"You think so as well?" A childish voice said, seemingly echoing slightly.

"Hai... Even though this is a quiet place... There seems to be a lot of them here." The boy said, noticing a shadowy figure of a cat on the fence through the fog. However, he seemingly turned back to sketching on the papers he had pulled out of his notebook to past the time. "I face two yesterday... Another one just this morning..."

"Really?" The boy simply began rending a gesture drawing of the man doing the quiz show, adding details. "I can't sense them. They seemingly dropped off the radar once they move here."

"I see... What about others?" The boy asked, deciding to give the man's suit stripes.

"There is no others." The voice let out a sigh. "There has been no others for a least the last few years in this town."

"Well... That would explain why there is so many." Naruto said, finishing a somewhat well rendered drawing. He picked up the remote and changed the channel, ending up on the news. "When there is no one around... They tend to flock and begin mischief... Yet, it seems odd here... They don't cause problems... That is till someone like me comes near them." Naruto sighed, seeing it was still on the scandal going on.

"Indeed... But... Who are you? I do not remember you." The voice asked, though still somewhat happy in pitch.

"I don't know. I don't remember." Naruto said, frowning at the repeated information. "Though, it seems you have not learned your lesson."

"Learn my lesson?" The voice asked, confused. "What lesson?"

"Messing with something you cannot truly control." Naruto said, spinning the remote while wondering if to change the channel or turn off the television. "Though, even I don't fully remember the details except technical stuff, including about them and others."

"You are very informed for someone who cannot remember who he is." The voice said before Naruto was spook that an alarm-like sound hit his ears. He instantly had the remote ready in hand, jumping up and ready to through it before seeing it was the television with the headline "Breaking News" appearing on the screen. "It seems your presence has cause trouble. Don't you think you are responsible?" Naruto watched as a reporter was trying to get detectives to talk to her, noticing Dojima as one of the detectives on the screen.

Naruto didn't even flinch or bat an eye when the camera moved up, showing the gruesome reason the police was in the camera shot without censoring since it just went on air and quickly censored it with crew and station realizing the situation as well. "... I do not think this is their doing... It's not how they do things... However, to answer your question... No..." Naruto sighed, muting the television with not wanting to hear repeatedly same information over and over again, even if it was something new. "Even though I don't remember why... I am used to this kind of thing."

-Television-

"That's all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow." Sasuke closed his books, sighing in relief as student got up to talk to their friends.

'Man... If this was just a short day, I don't know how I will handle a full day.' Sasuke thought, discovering that civilian school was even harder than the academy. 'How the hell do people make stuff that should be simple complex?' Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts with hearing a bell tone and looked up, seeing Mr. Morooka almost to the door.

"Attention, all teachers. Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice." A female voice said over the intercom of the school.

"Hrnh." Mr. Morooka growled in annoyance. "You heard the announcement. Don't go anywhere until you hear otherwise."

'And thank you.' Sasuke thought, thankful as the loud teacher left, slamming the door behind himself. He ignored the banter around him while packing his bag, though noting the siren sounds he heard. Several students ran over to the windows, making a fuss. 'Did something happen?... I hope it doesn't involve Naruto.' Sasuke thought, now a bit worried. He pondered mostly on the blond today during the short lectures, trying to remember how the blond would be like if he still had his memories in the classroom with such a jerk for a teacher. For once, he would actually enjoy seeing some of the deadlast pranks on a teacher like Mr. Morooka.

However, he noticed the shift of the talking from the sirens and fog to the announcer in the scandal Mayumi Yamano and such. However, he noticed one student from the window group heading over to the red wearing girl sitting before the short hair girl next to him. "H-Hey, Yukiko-san. Mind if I ask you something...? Is it true that announcer's staying at your family's inn?"

"I can't discuss such things." The girl said while looking away from the boy.

"Y-Yeah, I guess not." The boy run back to his group as the short hair girl walked up to the red wearing one.

"Sheesh, how much longer is this gonna take?" The short hair girl sighed, her patience wearing thin.

"There's no telling." The red wearing girl smiled at her friend's antics.

"I shoulda left before the announcement came on..."

'I agree with ya.' Sasuke thought, pondering how lax security was on campus. Since he had ninja training and this was a civilian school... Probably pretty easy for him to skip out without problems. Sasuke snapped out of it with the bell tones going off again.

"Attention, all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatch around the School Zone." The female voice announced in a calm manner. "Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school ground. Do not disturb the police officers. Head directly home... I repeat.."

'Something happened near here?' Sasuke thought, though paling at students chatting and going to look at what the incident was about. 'Do they have any survival instinct?' Sasuke sighed, getting up to go back to Dojima's place.

"Hey, are you going home by yourself?" Sasuke looked up to see the green jersey girl and red sweater girl now standing next to him. "Why don't you come with us?" The short hair girl smiled at him. Though, Sasuke noticed it was nothing like the other girls at the academy had smiled to him before. "Oh, nearly forgot! I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you, right?"

'Yes. You are right in front of me...' Sasuke thought, though noticing her personality kind of matched Naruto's old one a bit. "You do?" Sasuke said, trying to tease the girl.

"Dude, I was sitting right next to you... I even talked to you." Sasuke sweated at the confused look from the girl.

'Maybe my joke with Naruto failed because of my own delivery.' Sasuke thought, beginning to ponder exactly how anti-social he was back at the academy. 'I can't even tell a joke.' Sasuke hide his slight depression with realizing he might have focused a bit too much on revenge. He could he get a wife to help revive the clan if he was not at least a little social?

"Anyways... This is Yukiko Amagi." Chie introduced her red wearing friend.

"Oh, nice to meet you... I'm sorry that this is so sudden..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, confused by the girl's comment.

"C'mon, don't apologize like that. It makes me look like I got no upbringing." Chie said with a frown. "I just wanted to ask some stuff. Really, that's all." Sasuke nodded, deciding it to be best to leave with a group since there was an incident nearby.

"Uh, umm, Miss Satonaka?" Sasuke blinked, seeing the boy with orange headphones before the three. He pulled out a small box, looking really nervous and scared to Sasuke. "This was really awesome. Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see... And... I'm really sorry! It was an accident! Please just have mercy until my next paycheck!" The boy bowed while holding the box out. Chie took the box, confused by the boy. "See ya! Thanks!" The boy tried to run away.

"Stop right there! What did you do to my DVD!?" Sasuke flinched in pain as Chie landed an uppercut kick right between the poor guy's legs. The boy groaned in pain, jumping up and down while clinching his lower region. "What the?! I can't believe this! It's completely cracked..." Chie whined, opening the box to see why the boy was so desperate to get away. "My 'Trail of the Dragon!'"

"I think mine's cracked too... C-Critical hit to the nads..." Sasuke sweated as the boy finally fell over.

'I think my question before was answered...He's probably not going to have kids any time soon.' Sasuke shivered, now realizing why he was thankful Naruto was not a girl. He could see Naruto doing that. Heck, he even expect Naruto even as a boy to play dirty in a fight and aim for that one weakness. 'Damn... Why the hell can't I get Naruto off of my mind?... Then again... He lost his memories to save me... Maybe it's guilt...' He snapped out of his thought with seeing the girls going and decided to leave the guy alone. He rather not get on Chie's bad side and earn himself a kick to the nads as well.

It didn't take the group of four to each the gate outside, allowing Sasuke to take a breath of fresh air after all he been through in class. However, he was quickly alert with seeing a dark hair student wearing a different high school uniform ran up to the group.

"You're Yuki, right? Y-You want to hang out somewhere?" The strange student asked.

"What…? Wh-Who are you?" Yukiko asked, confused.

"What's up with him? What school's he from?" A student watching from afar said. Sasuke personally found himself uncomfortable with others staring at them. That, and this person gave off a strange air he had not sense before. It was disturbing.

"Never mind that, he's going for Yukiko-san? Man, you'd think he's at least wait until she's alone to make his move…" Another student sighed.

"I bet you a can of TaP he gets knocked out." The other student chimed. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that comment.

"No bet. Haven't you heard how difficult the Amagi Challenge is?"

'What the hell is there a challenge about a girl?' Sasuke thought, though personally not wanting to find out. 'Is she the female version of me to the girls at school?' Sasuke thought, now pondering if he might end up like Naruto when he tried to ask out a certain girl in class, but with the boys going after him instead of the girl herself hitting him. Sure, he could handle civilians a few years older than him, but he did not want to get suspended for harming students.

"Um, s-so… are you coming or not?" The strange student asked.

"I-I'm not going…" Yukiko looked down.

"…Fine!" The student shouted before running off, seemingly very furious.

"Wh-What did he want from me?" Yukiko asked in shock.

"What did he want…? Obviously, he was asking you out on a date." Chie pointed out for her friend.

"Huh? Really…? Yukiko asked, seeming confused. Sasuke, however, sweated, now realizing Yukiko was possibly his "female" self in this world and wondering if Chie was Naruto's "female" self.

'Is this an alternate reality to our own where everyone is just vaguely similar to who they are?' Sasuke thought of the possibilities, remembering what Naruto said the night before. However, he stopped as a headache was coming on. 'Nah... Maybe I am just projecting what I think of my world onto this one which is probably not even remotely connected in any way.'

"You really had no clue? Sheesh…" Chie sighed at her friends antics. "But, then again, that was way over the time. It was creepy how he called you Yuki all of a sudden."

"Yo, Yukiko-san," The student from before chimed while walking up with his strange wheeled device, "Turned down another lovelorn fool, huh? Man, you're cruel… You got me the same way last year."

"I don't recall doing that." Yukiko sighed.

"Whoa, you serious?" The student smiled. "So, then, you wanna hang out sometime?"

"… I'd rather not." Yukiko shot down the boy. Sasuke sweated, now wondering if the masochist was actually Naruto's counterpart. At least when it comes to asking a girl out and keep on getting rejected.

"That'll teach me to get my hopes up…" The boy sighed before smiling. "Anyways, you two better not pick on the transfer student too much." The boy rode off before getting hurt again. A smart decision to Sasuke with seeing the boy seemed to attract pain.

"We're just curious, is all!" Chie roared as Sasuke backed off, not too keen of receiving her wrath. He was quite thankful she was not interested in him like the girl back in the academy.

"U-Um, I'm sorry for dragging you two into this…" Yukiko apologized as Sasuke noticed the other students were staring at them.

Chie noticed this as well. "C'mon, let's go. Everybody is staring." They all left the school gate, not liking being the center of attention. They were soon walking down the street to head home. Sasuke noticed the peacefulness of the surrounding. It was relaxing compared to Konoha. Sure, there were some calm spots there, but Konoah was always more of a busy place within the village itself due to all the people there. It had quite a population, giving the village a diverse amount of ninja and civilians of many trades.

"Ah… So you are an orphan and was taken in as they have no idea where your friend and you came from. That's a pretty interesting thing." Chie sighed. "There really is nothing here, huh? That is what makes it nice, but there's nothing much we can show to people from outside. Oh! Though, there is something from Mount Yasogami… I think our dyed clothes or pottery or something is kinda famous. Oh wait, there's the Amagi Inn! Yukiko's family runs it. It's the pride of Inaba!" Chie chimed.

"Huh?" Yukiko sweated. "It's… just an old inn." Sasuke pondered why Yukiko seemed a bit hesitant to talk about her family business. He was quite proud back before the massacre to tell people his father was captain of the military police. Though, now thinking about it... What was it he wanted to do other than vengeance? Sure, having a family is important, but now he realized he had no idea what else he wanted to do with his life. Even now, he had no idea exactly what to do.

"Oh, no way, it's been in all sorta magazines as a hidden treasure." Chie smiled happily. "It's a great inn! It's been going for generations, and Yukiko here is going to take over someday. The inn actually attracts a lot of visitors to Inaba. It pretty much keeps this town going."

"…I don't think that's entirely true." Yukiko sighed tiredly.

"So, tell me. You think Yukiko's cute, huh?" Chie chimed as Yukiko panicked. Sasuke was confused by the reaction again from the girl. Usually a girl was curious of such things. But, then again, it could be something from girls in his village.

"Actually, any girl wearing decent clothes is cute to me. Agh... In fact, this is the first time I have actually managed to talk to a girl without… um... issues" Sasuke sighed as the two girls raised an eyebrow. "…Well, I guess it's official, my type will forever be girls several years older than me. So, yeah, she is cute to me." Sasuke struggling to speak his mind, deciding it was at least best probably to settle with a girl who at least was mature. Which sadly many of his classmates back in Konoha lacked.

"I knew it…" Chie chimed as what all Sasuke had said had set in, deciding to just think of the issues being minor issues Sasuke had with girls since he looked cute and would be handsome in a few years.

"Come on… Don't start this again…" Yukiko sighed at her friend, somewhat annoyed.

"She's really popular at school, but she's never had a boyfriend. Kinda weird, huh?" Chie asked.

"C-Come on, stop it." Yukiko blushed in embarrassment. "Y-You shouldn't believe that, okay? It's not true that I'm popular or that I've never had a boyfriend!" Yukiko stuttered. "Wait, no! Wh-What I meant to say was, I don't need a boyfriend! Geez… Chie!"

"Hahaha!" Chie laughed. "Sorry, sorry. But this is our chance to talk to somebody from the big city, and you barely said a word!" Chie laughed before Yukiko and Chie noticed Sasuke blushing. "Uh... What's wrong?"

"Just... Realized I am the same... I was popular with the girls back in my city... But... Never even spoken to a girl with how focused I was on my... studies till coming here." Sasuke stuttered, while slightly sloughing, making Chie recoiling at that. 'Maybe having this happen to me might have been a good thing.' Sasuke thought while Chie looked around for something to try and change the subject.

"Huh? What's that?" Chie asked as the group noticed several people around where the farming area in the school area met to buildings.

"So that high schooler left early and as she came down this street…" Sasuke and the two girls heard several housewives whispering to each other as they got to the intersection, finding one street blocked off by police and hence where people were hanging around at.

"Wow. Who could imagine THAT hanging from an antenna?"

"I wanted to see it too." Two housewives were talking to each other.

"Uh, you got here too late… The police and fire department took it down just a moment ago."

"Well, I think it's terrifying. I can't believe a dead body showed up around here…" Chie, Yukiko, and Sasuke were shocked though Sasuke was now worrying.

"Wait… What did she just say? A dead body?" Chie gasped in shock. However, the three realized Dojima Ryotaro walking towards them.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" Ryotaro asked, not looking happy at with seeing Sasuke.

"We were just passing by." Sasuke answered, though now really wondering who had died.

"Well… Could have figured that." Ryotaro groaned. "That damn principal. We told him not to let students through here…"

"…You know this guy?" Chie looked down at Sasuke, seemingly worried. Sasuke nodded, hoping to make her feel a little easier.

"I'm Detective Dojima, his temporary guardian. Uhh… Well, how should I say this… I hope you get along with him. As well as possibly his friend.." Ryotaro quickly frowned. "But you three really ought to stop wandering around and head straight home." Ryotaro began to walk away only to stop and watch a man run pass him and the group to puke in a trash can. This, however, made Ryataro mad. "Adachi! How long are you going to act like a rookie? You want to be sent back to the central office?

"I'm sorry… Nngh…" The young detective in a dark suit and had short, somewhat shaggy dark brown hair sighed.

Ryotaro sighed. "Go wash your face. We're gonna go around and gather information!" Both detectives went back to work though Sasuke felt no pity for the rookie investigator.

'…Man, I saw all of my clan dead and that detective just puked seeing one dead body… What a loser…' Sasuke thought while noticing Chie and Yukiko were pale. He did not blame them since they probably never saw a dead body before. 'Makes me wish I never seen saw a stranger's dead body, let alone all of my extended family.' Sasuke looked down, now feeling guilty again.

"Was this what that announcement was about?" Chie asked in horror.

"What do they mean… it was hanging from the antenna?" Yukiko asked, pale and looking ill. Sasuke also paled, realizing the connection to his own "incident" with Naruto.

'Wait... Could it be... No... Dojima said our case was kept secret due to the possible connections with human trafficking.' Sasuke thought, though had a nagging feeling something was not right. A chill went up his spine, finding the area around there seemingly charged like a dry day. Only he knew it was humid and not static electricity.

"Hey, Yukiko…? Why don't we go to Junes some other time?" Chie frowned.

"Good idea…" Yukiko sighed, not feeling like hanging out now.

"Alright them. We're taking off. Starting tomorrow, neighbor, let's do our best!" Chie chimed, trying to hide her fear at the moment. Sasuke only nodded and watched the girls leave.

"Hopefully without all the drama." Sasuke sighed, heading to Dojima's to make sure Naruto was alright.

-Television-

Sasuke and Naruto sat with Nanako in the living room, watching the television. Sasuke found Naruto was alright when he got home minus the fact the boy had been bored so much that he done almost 50 pages of random sketches and such. He was shock Naruto could actually draw... But, then remembered he often did not pay attention in class and guess the doodling ability came from that. At least it was better than another student who always slept.

'Wish I could do that... But, I just never could let myself do that.' Sasuke thought, noticing the silence between the three of them at the living room table.

"I wonder if Dad's not coming home again tonight…" Nanako sighed, somewhat depressed.

_"Our top story this evening concerns a bizarre case in a quiet suburb. Around noon today, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba."_ Sasuke was shocked seeing the area the high school was at being shown on the news. But, then again, there was never a news channel back in Konoha.

'Why do I have a feeling this was that dead body I heard about?' Sasuke thought as the news continued, feeling uneasy.

_"The deceased has been identified as Ms. Yamano Mayumi, a twenty-seven old announcer at the local television station. The initial results of the Inaba Police Department's investigation have revealed…"_

"Ah! The Inaba Police Department! Th-That's where Dad works!" Nanako yelped in surprise. "…" Nanako then frowned, realizing the situation.

"He'll be alright. I've met him on the way home and he was fine." Sasuke said, trying to cheer Nanako up.

"… I know. That's his job, so this stuff happens." Nanako sighed as they focused back on the news.

_"The body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident's roof. Authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such a state. With the cause of death also uncertain, police continue to investigate whether the death is an accident or a homicide. A thick fog common to the area has slowed their progress, and plans to fully canvas the area are delayed until tomorrow."_

'So, it was that announcer who was on the news yesterday. She was having an affair with a political person. I wonder though why someone would hang a dead body off an antenna… Some sicko probably.' Sasuke let out a small sigh, remembering the murder of his family he came across years ago. 'It kind of makes that guy seem actually nice when I think about it.'

"They found her on the roof? That's scary…" Nanako sighed, shivering a little. However, she quickly was distracted by a commercial. "Oh, it's Junes!"

"At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes!"

"Every day's great at your Junes!" Nanako sang happily.

"Do you like that song?" Sasuke asked as Naruto hummed the tune.

"Yep. It's popular at school too." Nanako chimed before singing the song over and over again with Naruto joining in, helping her to forget about the news story. Sasuke, though, found himself feeling better through the silly display. Naruto and Sasuke retired to their room after eating with Nanako and studying from Sasuke's notes and the textbooks for school.

"So, Naruto, did anything happen while I was at school?" Sasuke asked, remembering the murder that happened today.

"Not really... Just bored... I learned of the murder around noon when it hit the news." Naruto sighed, realizing what Sasuke was wonder. However, he did not look up while writing in the diary had bought. Sasuke, however, had to smirk as it was orange.

"What cha' writing?" Sasuke asked while looking over Naruto's shoulder. However, he instantly paled with being unable to read a lick of what Naruto wrote... Mainly due to the fact it looked nothing like Japanese... In fact, it looked like odd symbols instead of a language. "N-Naruto... How bad are you at writing?" Sasuke asked, wondering if him being a deadlast was not an accident.

"I only suck at Kanji... I think." Sasuke frowned at Naruto. "If you are wondering, it's kind of a code... I don't know why, but it just feels natural for me to write this way involving anything personal... Isn't a diary personal?" Naruto asked, looking at Sasuke with confusion.

"Y-Yeah... I guess so... But, that's code? Were you thinking of being a cypher ninja or something as even I can't recognize any those letters." Sasuke tried again a joke, though really wondering if Naruto's skills as a ninja were really more towards the support side than action.

"I don't know... I can't remember." Sasuke sweated as Naruto simply finished his entry and closed the book. "However, how was your day?... What was school like?" Sasuke noticed some curiosity in Naruto's eyes.

"Well, we have a jerk for homeroom who make Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei look like angels." Sasuke sighed, deciding to let off some steam. "Though, I am shock they managed to make civilian school harder than the academy. It explains why so many students try to get into the academy in Konoha even though their life would be on the line later on. However, there was the incident... But, I met two girls who seem I might be able to become friends with. Which is odd considering I always avoided girls before. However, I bet you would be pranking the homeroom teacher to hell and back considering how you prank the teachers back in Konoha." Sasuke chuckled, liking the idea.

"Would that be true?" Sasuke blinked at Naruto's confusion. "...The old me..."

"The old you?" Sasuke asked, now also confused.

"Can... I ever be the old Naruto?" Sasuke was shocked by what Naruto said. "We have no clue where my memories are... All we know is it is a fogged cover place with metal structures..."

"Naruto..." Sasuke frowned, realizing he also had no idea where to possibly find Naruto's memories. However, he then clinched his fists as determination filled his eyes. "It doesn't matter! I will find your memories, even if I got to search this whole world!" Sasuke sternly spoke, "When I went to school... I realized how much even I took for granted life." Naruto cocked his head at Sasuke. "I won't do that again. Life will just leave me behind if I do that. I won't let that happen to you."

"But... Will I be the same even with my memories?" Naruto asked, though Sasuke could not tell what emotions Naruto had from his blank expression. "I don't really care if I get my memories back as long as those around me are not hurt."

"Serious?..." Sasuke asked before bursting into laughter.

"Huh? Why are you laughing?" Naruto asked, confused as to what was funny.

"I-I just realized... You're not selfish like you let others believe... In fact, you're a pretty good person, even without your memories."

"I don't know about that..." Naruto sighed, though Sasuke simply put it as Naruto not remembering. "Well, I am going to bed. I rather dream than be bored." Sasuke sweated as the blond flopped into his futon, covering himself in his blankets.

'I think I embarrassed him.' Sasuke thought before noticing his journal on the desk, his name written on it sloppy. 'He wrote my name on it?... Well, no wonder he is more comfortable writing in code. His handwriting sucks.' Sasuke grabbed a pen and sat down at the desk to write an entry. Since he had a little memory issue yesterday, he rather make sure to write down what he can remember to check and make sure he did not have permanent damage to his brain. That and he could keep track with all he finds out as well.

**April 11-12, 2011**

**Dear Diary,**

**I hope that is right... I never done this before. Well, somehow another student, Uzumaki Naruto. and I ended up in another world in a country known as Japan and a town called Inaba. Luckily, same language, but this world is completely different from the one I knew. It quite advance in technology, yet it seems no ninja exist here minus in fiction. However, though Naruto and I survived being electrify with landing on a radio tower, Naruto lost his memories due to fighting what dragged us into the television. However, his memory lost is not permanent if we can find the beads his memories are sealed into. Though, I wonder who sealed his memories into beads and why? Though, I am doing this writing to insure I don't forget things as well as I had a slight gap of memory which made it seem like Naruto teleported for a second. Though, even without his memories, Naruto seems to be a lot more than a deadlast. He can cook, clean, sew, and also make high explosives. Hence I am making sure not to be on his bad side... However, without his memories, he has become quite aloof and distance, making me realize how I acted before this whole ordeal. So, while I am stuck in this situation, I will try my best to learn how to be social again. I let four years of my life waste away with just focusing on anger and training. Thankfully, the police in Inaba put Naruto and me in the care of Dojima Ryotaro, a detective. He is pretty busy and has a toddler, Nanako. Both are seemingly nice, though I noticed Nanako seems to be used to being alone when her father is at work.**

**However, I am never complaining-if I ever did before-about the academy again. Though I don't mind being challenge even with studying, some of what civilians study is pretty complex compared to what ninja study. In fact, some of the math problems I saw I would have to learn to solve make some of the equations for ninja studies look like basic math. However, on the flip side, I have new respect for my sensei back home. I met the teacher from Hell, Mr. Mooroka, who makes even makes the worse sensei at the ninja academy look like the model teacher. He's a jerk and loud. I hope that once Naruto gets some his memories back to prank the guy.**

**However, there was also a murder on my first day of school. It was the announcer from the scandal being covered on the news who died. I believe Mayumi Yamano is her name. However, she was found hanging from antenna... Somewhat the same way as Naruto and I was found... Only we were alive and she was not. I wonder if it was the same thing that attacked Naruto and me, but she died. I definitely know it is not an accident... However, my main focus is to find Naruto's memories and get us back to Konoha. Only problem is I have no idea where to start. The only clues I have is what Naruto told me of where he lost his memories when we were pulled through the television. It is a place with odd metal beams and full of fog... It's probably at least somewhere in Inaba as I remember one of the students staying that after it rains here in Inaba, fog always appears afterwards lately... Well... I hope so... I want to get back Naruto's memories since he lost them protecting me. It makes me rethink what is more important: revenge on those who are no longer alive or protecting the ones still around me that is alive. I think now the second one is what I should focus on.**

Sasuke closed the journal, looking at Naruto who was now lightly snoring. 'I will get your memories back... Wait... I remember that those two odd dreams... Contract... Truth... I wonder... is the contract I am to make... Is that my promise to find Naruto's memories?' Sasuke thought before shaking his head, putting the two dreams as such before going to bed himself.


	3. Ch 3: If Only Promises Were That Easy

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not own the series with the acronym PMMM. They belong to their owners and this is just fanfiction. I am referring to one series through the acronym to not spoil the rewrite and plot due to it becoming a tri-crossover. If you spoil it for others, shame on you.

* * *

Ch. 3 " If Only Promises Were That Easy"

"I slept hard." Sasuke groaned, rubbing his shoulder while walking towards Yasogami High School. He woke up stiff, but feeling oddly refreshed compared to waking up the day before. Though, he got an eye full in the morning with seeing Naruto in a pink apron over a shirt and pants. All the while the blond was working very obsessively on a device called a "computer" that Ryotaro had dug out from his room for them to move into their room for school work. All the while a happy Nanako was waiting for Sasuke to join her in the breakfast Naruto had made. It just reinforced the idea Naruto had a hidden kid he was talking care of before ending up in this world... And that he might be indeed also more fit to be a cypher ninja. 'But, then again, how can he be a dad when he is twelve?' He snapped out of his thought with hearing pedaling behind him as now he knew what a bicycle is. Sasuke watched as a yellow bike zoom by and crash into a garbage area, the same area as the day before he witnessed a similar crash. The rider was stuck, rolling around in a trash can.

"S-Someone…" The rolling student yelped, Sasuke instantly recognized the voice while sweating. Sasuke gave a pitying sigh, grabbing the guy's legs only and yank the student out. With seeing fawn hair and orange headphones, he confirmed his suspicions. It was the masochist he saw the other day.

"Whew, you saved me. Thanks! Umm…" Sasuke sweated, wondering if the student noticed the banana peel on his head. "Oh yeah, that's right. You're that transfer student, Uchiha Sasuke. I'm Hanamura Yosuke. Nice to meet ya." Yosuke chimed while smiling while the banana peel off, making the older boy sheepishly laugh.

"Is your bike okay?" Sasuke asked, trying to make another joke, having a feeling the boy was used to pain. Though he was wondering how the guy managed to land in a trash can. 'Though it's better than another hit to the nads for sure.'

"My bike? What about me?" Yosuke whined, though seemed alright to Sasuke. Though Yosuke seemed to realize Sasuke was just trying to humor him with the slight depressed look on his face with failing at another joke. "Say, did you hear about the incident from yesterday? They found that announcer lady hanging from an antenna! You think it was some kinda warning? There's no way something that weird could've been an accident." Yosuke said, trying to change the topic.

"…You might be right." Sasuke shivered, remembering how he almost ended up dead before in a similar manner. However, he also had a feeling for sure it was not an accident that he could not deny. The only problem is he had no means to tell if it was true or not.

"Dangling a dead body over a roof like that… That's just messed up." Yosuke frowned. "Then again, it's pretty messed up to kill someone in the first place." Yosuke looked at his watch and panicked. "Oh crap, we're late! You wanna ride? It's a little squeaky, but it should be fine since you are small and seem light." Sasuke glared at that comment, but took the offer. No way in hell he was going to be late to 's class.

-Television-

"Where has this been all my life?" Naruto hummed, having put back where he found the apron earlier and put on some clothes to continue his explores of the technology Ryotaro introduced to him before leaving that morning: the computer. Even though he had no idea why he loved the device, he felt right at home working on it. He even had already even downloaded some free programs and such and learned more on how to use the computer.

Even better, he had discovered another miraculous thing with the computer. The massive information network that was the internet... Though, again, not knowing why he saw it miraculous without any memories to explain it.

"At least with this I won't be bored to death... Though, with how much I learned off this, why do I need school?" Naruto sighed, realizing from his technical memories he was at least not that good a learning from textbooks. Sasuke proved it as well with him nearly having a brain overload with studying last night.

Naruto's eyes suddenly widen with realizing something. "Hmm... I wonder..." Naruto went to a search engine and typed in the words "Magic Gem Secret." Though, he had no idea why the words he typed in came into his head, but quickly found himself to a blog site even a large range of topics... But had ended up several perpendicular ones scattered across.

"Heh." Naruto smirked, reading the posts. "So there are others here... Well... Not in Inaba... Though, why are their communications so scattered even on one site?" Naruto pondered aloud, stretching back his arms from sitting so long. "With how technology is here, shouldn't it be easier to communicate?... But, then again... With how the laws seem akin to the old system, I can see why they would not want to communicate with each other..."

Naruto looked up at the ceiling, grimacing as a headache formed.

_**"Why can't others work together like us?"**_ Statically images flashed in the back of his mind, scattered and barely even recognizable to Naruto. Probably due to the fact the beads he collected before being attack were so far apart as memories.

"Working together..." Naruto mumbled with a dumb look on his face before his eyes narrowed as the headache dulled away. "..." He straighten back up, closing the internet browser and clicking onto a program known as Codecrafter. "...Even if I don't remember anything, I just can't simply sit here and deny what is going on... Even if this world is not my own..."

_**"We have to help anyone we can! This kind of thing is dangerous, you know! Pinky promise!"**_

"... If I can't keep a promise..." Naruto sighed, beginning to type code into the program. "... Then can I really be myself?"

-Television-

'Wow… And I thought the lectures at the academy were boring. At least I learned some things... History he is quite different... It was like our own wars, but then technology shot through the roof. ' Sasuke thought with remembering the Japanese history class he took today as the last bell rung and he was finishing packing his bag.

"So, you getting used to this place?" Sasuke looked up to see Yosuke standing next to him.

"Surprisingly, yeah…" Sasuke sighed, finding it easier to relax in this town… But, then again, there were no worries of ninja attacking him for his Sharingan eyes or such. Though, there was a murder just yesterday and then there was how Naruto and he ended up in Inaba... So, maybe he should not be so relaxed...

"Wow, that was fast." Yosuke looked at Sasuke with a smile. "Well, there isn't much to do here compared to the big city, but there is that certain… something you can't get anywhere else. The air's clean, the food's great… Oh, you know about the local delicacy? It's grilled steak, man! Like that's anything special, huh? I know a place where you can get it cheap. Wanna come? You help me out this morning, so it's on me." Sasuke blinked, finding Chie having walked up and somewhat annoyed.

"What about me, huh? No apologies?" Chie came up growling. "My 'Trail of the Dragon.'" Sasuke slightly flinch, somewhat ready to bolt in case Miss "Legend of the Dragon" was ready to roar. He noticed, though Yosuke not so much scared, but tired and annoyed instead.

"Urgh…" Yosuke groaned. "You always come around when I'm talking about food…" Sasuke noticed from the tone that Yosuke seemed to be used to this.

Chie smiled at Yukiko. "How about it, Yukiko? Don't you think he should treat us, too?" Yukiko got up and frowned.

"I'll pass… I don't want to gain any more weight. I need to help out at the inn today, anyway." Yukiko let out a tired sigh. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, noticing the girl looked to be in good shape.

'Then again, it seems girls always worry about their weight.' Sasuke thought, remembering that was the second most talked about thing among the females at his old school: diets.

"Wow, Yukiko-san! You started training to take over the business?" Yosuke chimed.

"It's not like that! I'm just helping out when it gets busy." Yukiko looked down. "Well, I should be on my way." Yukiko left the room as Chie sighed.

"Oh well. We should get going too." Chie chimed, happy to get a free meal from what Sasuke saw.

"Huh? Do I seriously have to treat two people…?" Yosuke groaned, slumping at the pain he was going to feel in his wallet. They turned their head to Sasuke with hearing the ringing from a phone, finding Sasuke struggling to get his cell phone out of his pocket and flip it open.

"Hello?" Sasuke asked, calming his heart down. He was not used to having a phone on him all the time. "Oh, hey, Naruto... Yeah... Actually, I am going to be with someone there for food at the food court there, so just meet me there." Sasuke sighed, closing the phone after saying good-bye.

"Huh? You already got plans?" Yosuke asked, though his face lit up some.

"Sort of. I have to shop for some clothing as all I got right now is my school uniform and some random pieces of clothes." Sasuke said as the other two paled. "I'll pay for my food." Sasuke offered for Yosuke to shake his head.

"I made a promise to treat you for saving me, so I will." Sasuke sweated, knowing this would not end well… Well for Yosuke's wallet if he remember the price for steak back in Konoha.

-Television-

"THIS is the cheap place you were talking about…? They don't have grilled steak here." Chie groaned, quite unhappy as Yosuke walked up with a tray with two takoyaki plates.

"Yeah, well, once you hopped on to the freeloader train, I had to change my plans." Yosuke sighed, though Sasuke was somewhat relieved the guy wasn't going to be feeling as much pain to the wallet as he expected. Though, takoyaki he never tried before.

"Still, that's no reason to take us to your place." Chie growled in anger as Sasuke cocked his head in confusion.

"Dude, this isn't my place or anything." Yosuke then noticed the confused look on Sasuke's face. "Oh, right. I haven't told you yet, huh? I moved here from another city about six months back. This location just opened up, and my dad was assigned to manage it. So our entire family came out here." Yosuke picked up his drink from the tray of fast food he brought out that was ordered. "Here, this is to welcome you to town." Sasuke and Chie got their drinks and did a toast, though Sasuke was slightly delayed with not knowing exactly at first what they were doing.

"Satonaka, yours is on me too." Yosuke chimed.

"Yeah, I know." Chie chimed before they did a toast and drank before noticing something. "Hey, wait, is that kid from our school?" Sasuke and Yosuke looked to where Chie was looking and paled with seeing blond hair kid around Sasuke's size and wearing the Yasogami High School uniform picking up his meal from the food court. However, instead of a simple meal like takoyaki...His tray was filled with several different dishes some of which nearly falling off the tray

"Holy... Someone ordered the 'Family Free-for-all' for just himself. Can he even eat all that?" Yosuke whistled, both Chie and he was shocked before noticing Sasuke was sweating. "Huh, what wrong?" The two realized the blond hair boy was looking there way, though could not tell because how much the boy's bangs fell in front of his eyes. "He's coming this way?! Did he hear me?!" Yosuke hissed as the boy walked towards them.

"Ah, there you are, Sasuke..." The boy sat down at the table, Chie and Youske noticed whisker like marks on the boy's cheeks. "Since you get getting a bit to eat, I got me something to snack as well."

"You call that a snack!" Chie said in shock at the huge amount of food. "You have a bigger stomach than me!"

"That's saying a lot." Yosuke remarked before yelping as Sasuke noticed Chie had moved and guessed Chie stomped on his foot under the table. "S-So who are you? I-I haven' seen you at school. You know, Uchiha-san?"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto... I haven't been to school yet due to waiting for my glasses to come in, hence why you haven't seen me yet." Naruto introduced himself with a slight bow before taking a bit of a burger.

"He's from the same place as me. We are currently under Detective Dojima's care till we can figure out exactly where our city is since it's pretty isolated." Sasuke sighed, though now getting an idea as to what a "foodie" is now.

"Wait... Isolated? Aren't you like from the big city?" Yosuke asked, confused as well as Chie who just expected the boy from the suburb of one of the big cities when he mentioned the day before he had no idea exactly where he came from.

"Konoha is big, but pretty hidden away." Both students looked at Sasuke with shock. "We're also a bit backwards in technology, too. Though, due to the size, it has the feel of a city as here you can relax more." Sasuke explained, confused by the looks he was getting.

"How can a city be hidden?" Chie asked, though seemingly interested in this.

"Konoha is very protective of keeping much of its forest around it. Even though it has expanded, there is enough trees throughout to help keep it hidden... Heck, some people got trees growing on their roofs." Sasuke sighed. He was one of those who were not fond of the trees on roofs, having almost slam his face into some of the branches while jumping on the roofs at night.

"Whoa, a green fanatic paradise." Yosuke said, though Sasuke wondered what he meant by "green." Wasn't it just a color? "But, how is you can't get back to there is you know where you came from?"

"Problem... Naruto and I never left Konoha before. Worse, the incident that resulted in us ending up here affected our memory... Since Konoha is so backwards, it still uses ryou as currency... It hasn't had enough contact with the rest of Konoha to exactly give it a place on the map." Sasuke sighed, having learned that there was once a currency the same as there, but this world now uses a currency called Yen.

"Whoa?! Seriously?!" Chie chimed, "So, it's like a ninja village in the movies!"

"Actually, you're dead on except since there isn't exactly the need for ninja even back home. So instead of assassinations and such, we trained more for odd jobs as well as possibly going into departments like police and such." Sasuke sighed, lying with no problem as it was actually a half-truth. In order to get into the military departments of police and fire control in Konoha, you had to become a ninja.

"You're lying, huh?" Yosuke raised an eyebrow, a bit suspicious of it. "A whole city in Japan hidden?"

"We don't know if Konoha is actually on Japan..." Naruto said, shocking the two high schoolers.

"What Naruto means is we don't know if it is on main land Japan or one of the islands nearby." The two looked at Sasuke. "Our village never covered much of the history outside of it that we can't place where it is exactly in Japan... I had to cram last night and this morning just to make sure I knew what history class was talking about." Sasuke groaned, remembering the headache he had during dinner while studying. And he still hasn't hit onto world history which he was going to do tonight. 'Though I pity Naruto... He sucks at it.' Sasuke thought, remembering seeing how poorly Naruto studies.

"Oh... Sort of like those Americans who isolate themselves and don't take on technology I heard about." Yosuke said, now believing the lie, "So, this is the first time you seen a food court?" Yosuke chimed at the thought.

"No. We do have some technology and culture similarities like here, but Inaba makes Konoha looks like it's back a century at least. Mainly due to we focus more of a 'people' type military than technology wise like the rest of Japan."

"By people... You mean like-"

"Yeah, weapons and soldiers on the battlefield, though now a lot of the fighting styles and such taught to us at the academy is just to help keep us in shape and have sharp minds for in case whatever job we take on." Sasuke sighed, though wondering if Konoha would be still around if their world was like this.

"Oh. So like the ninja dojos I read about." Chie chimed, seemingly quite excited, but decided to change the topic before for some reason. "Hey. It's only been half a year since this place opened up, but I haven't been to the local shopping district much since." Chie sighed. "A lot of stores there started closing and… Oh, uh…"

"… You can't blame it all on Junes, can you?" Yosuke sighed sadly. Sasuke just raised an eyebrow when he noticed Naruto staring at something. He looked to see Naruto staring at a very platinum blond, wavy hair woman who sat at one of the other tables. Sasuke realized the day he got out of the hospital, Naruto and he saw her sibling and her arguing when they saw the shopping district.

"Hey… It's Saki-senpai!" Yosuke chimed. "Sorry, be right back." Yosuke jumped up, seemingly excited.

"Who's that?" Sasuke asked as Yosuke went over to the young woman.

"Oh, that's Konishi Saki. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district." Chie explained, realizing both didn't know who the young woman was. "… I think she's working here part-time, though."

"I see…" Sasuke sighed, "Well, she seems pretty tired…" Sasuke pointed out, noticing the young woman had signs of stress on her face… He knew because he looked a similar way after the Uchiha Massacre. It took him a week or two just to finally regain his strength from that.

"…She's a prime target...Yet, none of them have gone after her..." Naruto mumbled with a hotdog in his mouth for both Sasuke and Chie to look at him with confusion.

"Huh?" Chie asked for Naruto to shake his head.

"It's nothing…" Naruto sighed, though the two just decided they misheard him.

"Dude… What's with you? You sure like to be quiet." Chie sheepishly laughed at Naruto who seemingly looked away. The three then saw the young woman Yosuke was talking to walk over with Yosuke.

"Are you the transfer student? Oh, did you hear about me already? It must be nice to have someone else from the big city to talk to, huh?" Saki chimed, seemingly having a nice, perky personality.

'… The police must have told everyone we came from a big city…What a bunch of lairs.' Sasuke thought in annoyance. Though, it could be the other way around and people just mistook "city" for a big one.

"I don't see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys much." The young woman chimed with smile.

"N-Not necessarily…" Yosuke stuttered while looking down.

"He doesn't have too many friends, so I hope you three get along good." Saki sighed. "Hana-chan's a good guy, but he can get nosy sometimes. You gotta tell him right to his face when he starts to annoy you."

"That's not true… If you knew what Naruto was like before the… accident, then Yosuke here is like an angel of pureness." Naruto looked down as Sasuke sweated at the now depressed blond. "Ah, Naruto, you weren't not bad, it's just back then you just knew which buttons to push to really get on people's nerves." Chie and Yosuke looked at the two boys' in confusion.

"Ahaha, I know… I'm just kidding." Saki chimed, though Yosuke and Chie looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"C-C'mon, Senpai. There's no need to worry about something like that." Yosuke whined, letting what Sasuke said slide.

"Well, my break's just about over. Back to work I go…" Saki chimed. "Laters!" Saki walked off.

"Oh, uh, Senpai!" Yosuke sighed, only to sit down to see Saki was gone. However, he then chuckled. "Hahah, Saki-senpai says I'm annoying, but she's even nosier than me. She has a younger brother, and she treats me pretty much the same way…"

"Ohhh, you don't want her treating you like a brother, huh? Oh, I get it… So that's how it is…" Chie chimed with a smirk. "The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of the invading chain… The flame of forbidden love!" Yosuke did a double take which made Sasuke wonder how the guy didn't snap his neck.

"Wha-? Dude, it's not like that." A light blush was on Yosuke's cheeks.

"Oh reaaally… Well, I know just the thing to cheer up that lovesick heart." Chie chuckled. "You ever hear of the Midnight Channel? You're supposed to look into a TV that's switched off, alone, exactly at midnight on a rainy night. While you're staring at your own image, another person will appear on the screen and they say that person's your soulmate."

"What? For a second, I thought you were actually going to say something useful. How can you get all excited over such a childish urban legend like that?" Yosuke yawned though Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He remember that a television was what pulled them into the mess Naruto and he is in now.

"Childish, huh?" Chie asked in an enraged tone. "You don't believe it, do you?"

"Of course I don't!" Yosuke frowned. Sasuke, however, did ponder exactly how such a legend existed. He technically at least experienced televisions could be connected to the supernatural...

"Well, it's raining tonight! Let's all try it out-then you'll see!" Chie snorted in anger.

"Try it out…?" Yosuke asked with interest before realizing it. "Wait. You haven't even tried it yourself?" Yosuke let lose a tired sigh. "Wow, I'm trying to remember the last time I heard something this stupid…" Naruto cocked his head in confusion, though Sasuke was curious of the rumor simply kept quiet and listened. "All that aside… You know that 'incident' yesterday? You guys think it was murder? Ooh, what if the culprit behind it was still lurking around…? Heehee…" Yosuke joked, trying to sound scary.

"Sheesh, you shouldn't joke about stuff like that. Now who's the childish one…?" Chie grunted in disgust. "All I am saying is, you guys better try it out tonight."

'Midnight Channel… But… Did that television turn on late at night when we were pulled in?' Sasuke thought, trying to remember as it was sort of blurry to him. 'This… This could be connected to that place we were in and that means a way to find Naruto's memories!' Sasuke nodded, deciding to have Naruto and himself watch the Midnight Channel tonight.

"Sasuke... I think we best go and get clothes as it's getting late." Sasuke looked at Naruto who showed his phone to prove the point.

"Oh, yeah. Well, see you two tomorrow." Sasuke said as the two high schoolers waved, also leaving. "Hey. What kind of clothing are you going to get?" Sasuke asked, a bit curious of Naruto's tastes.

"... I don't know... Anything orange or purple is fine with me." Naruto sighed, getting up from his seat. Sasuke, however, was pale to see the once fully loaded tray of food was now just the wrappers and such left behind. Not even a crumb was left with how clean everything was picked off.

"Wait? Purple? I know of orange, but you like purple as well?" Sasuke asked, a little confused.

"I don't remember why... Though, I believe it is due to color theory." Naruto explained as they threw their trash away and headed for the clothing department in Junes. "My blond hair works good with the complementary of purple, specially violet. The same with orange, though more to my eyes and hence usually wear blue to help it out." Naruto noticed Sasuke giving him a bewildered face. "What?"

"Er... Naruto... You're into fashion?" Sasuke asked, just trying to figure out how a boy who he knows wears an orange jumpsuit set in a ninja village knew of fashion.

"No... Some of the technical things I know is oddly about color for design, but it sewing or drawing." Sasuke still gave him a skeptic look. "Seriously... I just don't know why... It's just knowledge I retained."

"Oh..." Sasuke noticed the sad look on Naruto's face, 'He doesn't know why he likes the colors... ' "Sorry... I promise I will find your memories." Sasuke said, sheepishly smiling back at Naruto. 'I mean... When I think about it... It would have been better if I lost my memories with how painful they are.' Sasuke thought to himself, remembering how hard it was dealing with all of his love ones gone as he still had all the memories they left behind in him.

"Promises are something you should not take lightly. They are not as simple as one makes them sound." Sasuke, however, shivered at the seemingly dead look Naruto gave him. "If only promises were that easy... Reality would be a much better place."

-Television-

Sasuke noticed Nanako looked sort of sad while the three of them were eating during dinner… Having extra for Naruto as Sasuke discovered Naruto may have a relative from the Akimichi clan from how his hunger was seemingly hard to keep under control. "Did your father call, Nanako?" Sasuke asked, not wanting to see her frown. 'Is this what he felt being my brother?' Though, Sasuke guessed he was also trying to get what he saw before in Naruto in his head. They did not talk much while clothes shopping or coming back to the Dojima household. 'Naruto can be scary when he wants to be.'

"No. He always says he will." Nanako sighed before hearing the door opened. "Oh! He's home!" Nanako chimed happily. Ryotaro walked into the living room, his body looking rough and worn.

"What a day." Ryotaro sighed tiredly. "I'm back. Did anything happen while I was out?"

"No. You're late again." Nanako pouted in anger.

"I'm sorry… Been busy at work. Can you put the news on for me while I talk to the boys real quick?" Ryotaro asked and Nanako did what she was told though a bit annoyed at her father. Sasuke and Naruto got up and went over to Dojima who motion them to follow him into the hallway.

"What do you need, Ryotaro?" Sasuek paled as Naruto used the man's first name with no honor-fic. But, then again, even with his memories, Naruto was pretty rude though at least used some honor-fics with what he remembered.

"I am just wanted to tell you your case has been connected to the one I am currently working on." Both boys showed some shock. "Though, we don't think it is the same culprit, we actually believe what methods were used are the same. We have your case kept secret as a fail-safe just in case. Since you two are alive, you might remember what happen... Though, it's a remote possibility considering what has happened to you both. However, since it seems the motive was probably to kill you both, it seems placing you guys under my care was a good thing. We can't exactly put you into witness protection due to how odd the case is and your current situation with not knowing where your hometown is. We could accidently put you where someone would recognize you and give the murderer a link to find you two."

"I see... Though 'how odd?'" Sasuke asked, confused before seeing Dojima shaking his head.

"Never mind. Just be careful and don't let many people know that your 'accident' is actually possible the first possible case of a murderer." Dojima sighed before walking over to the couch and flopping onto it. Naruto and Sasuke sat back down to take-out they had bought with the left over money for buying clothes.

_"Next, more details in the developing story on the incident in foggy Inaba. Announcer Yamano Mayumi's dead body was found hanging above a house in this rural town. It is confirmed that Ms. Yamano had been involved in an affair with Namatame Taro, husband of enka singer Hiiragi Misuzu. The police plan to investigate this relationship and question any personnel involved with them. In addition, we now bring you an exclusive interview with the local student who found Ms. Yamano's body."_

Ryotaro sighed with some confusion. "An interview with the kid? Where the hell did they find her?

_"What went through your mind when you saw it? Could you tell she was dead? Did you see her face?"_ The reporter asked a girl on the television, but the girl's face was blurred to hide her identity which amazed Sasuke who never seen it before. He did not know cameras could do that from what he seen in Konoha.

_"U-Umm…"_ The girl's voiced was indistinct, but even with the distortions, Sasuke could tell he saw the person before... But, he could not put his finger one who it was.

_"Don't you think it's scary that someone was killed on a foggy day?"_

_"Huh…? She was killed?"_

_"Oh, errr… So did you see anyone suspicious around here?"_

_"No, not really…"_

_"We heard that you found it when you left school early. Did you have some personal business to take care of?"_

_"Huh? That's…"_

'Stupid reporter… To be so hyped up that he is confusing her… Wait, now I realized who it is! It's that sempai, Saki!' Sasuke thought, realizing who the girl was.

_"—A tragedy that occurred near the local shopping district. Many storeowners are raising concerns about losing customers as a result…"_

"Hmph. If they lose more customers, it'll be because you're making such a stink about it…" Ryotaro snorted in annoyance. Sasuke noticed Dojima seemed very fatigue, somewhat reminding him of his own father when he was alive and working in the police.

_"It really is a bizarre case, isn't it? I mean, hanging someone upside down from an antenna. I'd have to say it's a warning or a sign from the culprit."_

_"Yes, but so far, no one has come forward to take credit for the crime."_

"Loads of prank calls, though…" Ryotaro yawned tiredly, the fatigue starting to set in completely.

_"So the cause of death is still unknown? And they don't have a single suspect yet? Taxpayers' funds are going to a police force who can't even figure out if this is an accident or a homicide?"_

_"We'll be right back after these messages."_

_"At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes!"_

"Every day's great at your Junes!" Naruto and Nanako happily sang in unison, becoming a habit of Naruto. "Hey, Dad… Can we go to Junes together sometime? Nanako chimed only for all three to hear light snoring and look at Ryotaro. "No?" It was then Nanako realized her father was asleep. She just sighed, annoyed. "Geez…"

"Naruto and I will get him into bed." Sasuke sighed.

"Oh, wait I'll-" Nanako and Sasuke watched in shock as Naruto lifted the man up with just one arm and carried him over his head to Ryotaro's room. "…Wow! He's strong!"

"…Heh heh… Yeah… He's strong…" Sasuke sheepishly laughed, wondering where that strength came from. 'He never shown it during sparring... But, then again, he could have been holding back to not hurt people... That or with people like me, I take him down before he can unleash it...' Sasuke thought as Naruto came back as the three could finish dinner. After dinner, Sasuke and Naruto stayed up in the room, studying while waiting for midnight since Sasuke had his notes he made for Naruto.

"It's still raining…" Naruto sighed as the clock while shutting down the computer he was playing on as a reward for studying. He watched the minute hand inching closer to midnight as Sasuke turned off the lights. "… Your soulmate appears if you look into a TV on a rainy night... Do you believe this, Sasuke?" Naruto asked as both of them stood before the small television set in the room.

"…I don't know… But… It could relate to how we got here." Sasuke sighed when suddenly the television turned on. It showed some girl who seemed dancing due to the image going in and out around some kind of place with coolers for drinks for sale.

"What the…" Naruto gasped before noticing Sasuke gripping his head. "Sasuke?"

_I am thou… Thou am I… Thou are the one… Open thy door…_

"Ugh…" A ringing noise filled both Naruto and Sasuke's hearing, though Naruto was worried as Sasuke was in pain. However, it suddenly stopped when they saw the screen go blank. "That hurt…" Sasuke sighed before he touched the screen to see if there was any static to see if it did came on. Much to their shock, the screen moved like water instead of hitting a hard glass surface. "Woah! Weird!" Sasuke gasped as he stuck his arm inside only to be dragged into it, stopping with his head in the television due to the television in the room being too small for his shoulder to go through. "Ack!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke, trying to help him pull out as Sasujke put his leg on the table for leverage. They felt whatever had Sasuke's hand let go and...

-WHACK-

"Ow…" Both moaned as they had hit their heads against the table behind them. They heard the sound of running outside their door

"Are you okay?" Nanako shouted, having heard the bang and panicking.

"We're okay! Just tripped and knocked something over!" Sasuke shouted back.

"Okay…Well, good night…" Nanako left, heading back to her room to sleep.

"… Naruto… Did… That just happen?" Sasuke asked, looking at Naruto.

"Yes... It seems this Midnight Channel is more than it seems." Sasuke nodded at Naruto. "Though, I wonder who that girl was. With how the images flickered in and out, it was hard to get a good picture...We'll tell Chie and Yosuke about this tomorrow… Let's go to bed."

"Y-You want to go to bed after that?" Sasuke asked in pure disbelief before noticing Naruto was looking at the hand that went through the television. "Are you alright, Naruto?"

"…Yes… But..." Naruto just let out a sigh. "Nevermind… Let's go to bed." Naruto sighed before crawling all the way to his futon and under the covers.

"… I guess you were just as spooked as me about that…" Sasuke sighed with realizing the blond just wanted to not deal with the problem. He also got to his futon and laid down as well, deciding it was for the best. Heck, this could be a dream due to both of them passing out while studying without knowing it. He would wait till tomorrow to write in his diary as this might be one thing he did not mind forgetting. However, as a last thought, he got back up and put the television so the screen was against the wall, just in case before getting back to bed.

-Television-

"..." A tan young man was walking through what could be only described as a cross of a untamed forest and public park, looking at the ground. The few lights that illuminated the pathway he was walking showed his dark hair to be tied back in a high ponytail and a scar across his notice. He was also wearing Konohagakure's common attire for Chūnin.

"Umino-san, what are you doing out here so late?" The man jolted, looking up to find he had almost ran into a silver hair man wearing similar attire to him, but had his lower face and left eye covered with a dark cloth mask and a similar headband to what the tanned man looking up to him was wearing on his forehead. The man's lazy gray eye looked at him with a little worry.

"Ah... Kakashi-san." The young man, Umino Iruka, said with realizing the man was Hatake Kakashi, a Jōnin he known somewhat with having been in teams with him before becoming a teacher at Konoha's Ninja Academy. "Sorry... I wasn't paying attention." Iruka bowed, realizing he almost ran into the man who was also carrying a bag of groceries.

"... I can guess what's on your mind." Kakashi sighed, noticing the tired expression on the younger man.

"Yeah... I been unable to sleep well..." Iruka said with looking away with some embarrassment. Even if Kakashi was on a different level, a ninja should not be as easy to read as him. "They been missing for six weeks... They would probably not be missing if I hadn't punished them."

"You punished them?" Kakashi asked with interest, knowing who the young man was talking about.

"Yeah. Sasuke caught Naruto pulling a prank, but went about it wrong and both made a huge mess... I had them both to clean it up, but was not able to stay and watch over them do because of work at the academy..." Iruka tighten his fist, anger boiling up inside him... But only towards himself for not being there for his students. "If I had been there..."

"You shouldn't blame yourself." Kakashi said, though understood the teacher's regrets. He has his own to deal as well. "It isn't your fault... Though, the fact that someone managed to take Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto under the noses of a village of ninja... Probably means even if you were there, you might have not been able to save them."

Iruka reluctantly nodded. "I know... But, as a sensei... My main responsibility is my students' safety. Though, I don't get why both of them were taken... I mean, one of them alone is a possibly target, but both?" Iruka said, wanting to at least what has happened to his two students. "And... just when I was beginning to finally get Naruto to open up to me."

"Hm? I thought you did that months ago?" Kakashi asked, quite confused as he knew he finally got over the awkwardness of trying to deal with Naruto at least a few months ago. "But, then again, the goal was probably was for going after one of them and the other one was captured to keep from alerting the village." Kakashi sighed before looking pass Iruka's side. "Though, speaking of student's safety, is that one of your students?" Kakashi pointed for Iruka to see a girl close to the age of his students running across the path farther before them. A flash of orange in her arms caught their attention as she pass under a streetlight and then going into the woods.

"No... In fact, that's a civilian kid I been noticing looking at the class during recess and such." Iruka said before noticing Kakashi going after the child. "What are you doing?" Iruka said, following his senior into the forest.

"Investigating. Shouldn't a civilian girl be sleeping right now?" Kakashi said in a softer tone not to alert the girl, easily keeping up with the girl while silently moving through the trees. He wasn't even bothered with the bag he was still holding.

"True..." Iruka whispered back, knowing it was past midnight. Almost everyone was asleep, including many of the ninja of Konoha. There was only a few places open right now mainly to convenience the night workers or those coming back late from a mission... Which he guess Kakashi had done since he gotten groceries at this hour and knowing Kakashi was still an active ninja taking on missions. However, the two stopped, awestruck at what they found when the girl reached her destination.

"What the?" Iruka whispered, shocked at a make-shift shrine surrounding a picture of Uzumaki Naruto, one of his two missing students. The objects ranged from toys to clothes to even some food offerings still in wrappers and such. There was also candles, some lit while others had burned out with hitting the bottom of the wick. There was also written tributes on various things from paper to wood.

_**Sayanara, Senpai. Hope you are at peace.**_

_**Why did you have to vanish?! You were so kind when we were so mean!**_

_**I am sorry I never trusted you. Good-bye and sorry.**_

_**I'm so sorry.**_

_**You didn't deserve this... Please be at peace.**_

'What the hell?' Kakashi thought, both reading the responses before seeing the girl was crying. She placed a orange teddybear right under the photo, her hands trembling.

"Why... did you had to vanish?" The girl gasped, chocking as the tears fell. "Why did you have to vanish before I could apologize?!" Both ninja were shocked by her shout. "Y-You were-were trying to help us! You kept holding out your hand even when we simply push you away!" The girl never noticed both ninja jumping down out of the trees and walking over to her to try and comfort her. "Now, they are dead!"

"Huh?" Iruka asked while both stopped.

"If we had listened to you, everyone would still be alive! Party formation, working together... Even though we been friends for so long, we just failed over and over again... T-Then something took two of us right out of the blue when we were hunting in the junkyard and everything truly fell apart! Hic... I'm the only one left now after what took the other two that made us fall apart too my best friend! All I know is it used a television to hide itself and then teleport away before I could save her!" The girl was breathing hard, unable to catch her breath. "I-I went to look for you to try and apologize for our mistakes and beg for forgiveness... Only you have vanished! Now... It won't be long before I vanish as well! I hope... this is enough to make up for my... No, our stupidity and nativity!" The girl screamed out, her dark hair hiding her face though the tears hit the ground.

"We could stop that." The girl suddenly looked at the two ninja, shocked and seeming a nervous wreck. "If you could come with us, we can protect you from what has kidnapped your friends." Kakashi held out his free hand.

"..." Both were shocked when her face suddenly twisted into a sick grin. "Ha... ha ... Hahahaha!" The girl began to laugh manically before slapping Kakashi's hand away. "You know nothing!" The girl screamed at the top of her lungs, knocking the bag out of Kakashi's arm, Kakashi's eyes widen with feeling the sting in his arm. The girl was stronger than she looked. "My friends weren't kidnapped! They died and I am going to die the same way! Just like that boy who tried to help us!"

"But, he isn't dead." The girl and Iruka looked at Kakashi with shock. "He's alive, though m-." Kakashi was shocked when he suddenly found himself slammed into the ground, far harder than any pre-teen civilian should be able to. He hacked when the girl lifted him up the collar and slammed him down even harder, enough to cause cracks into the around them.

"Kakashi!" Iruka shouted, only to find himself seemingly unable to move his legs. He looked down to be find to his horror that roots coming out of the ground and ensnaring his feet and legs. 'What the!? This isn't a genjutsu, but how!?' Iruka thought, sensing no genjutsu even though it was one of his strong points.

"Where is he!?" The girl frantically screamed, on top of Kakashi and shaking him.."I can't track them down! I'm at my limit! He's my only hope as noone else will help me!" Kakashi was shocked, seeing the desperate tears falling from the girls eyes. Fear and terror had completely gripped her. "I don't want to die! I don't want to van-" Kakashi watched as the girl's eyes suddenly became lifeless and she went limp, falling onto him.

"Hey? What-" Kakashi noticed she was not breathing and instantly put his fingers to her throat while sitting up, ignoring the pain coming from his back.

"Kakashi?! What's wrong?!" Iruka asked, though nearly tripping with finding he could move his feet. He looked at the roots to find them withering away and dying. Iruka looked back at Kakashi, noticing the ninja now getting the girl on the ground and moving her head. "N-no way... Is she?"

"Her heart has stopped. She must have had panic attack that triggered something else." Kakashi opened the girl's lips to perform CPR... Only for them to be shock as the girl suddenly began to be engulfed in a strangely textured colors before their eyes. "What the hell?!" Kakashi shouted, trying to grab the girl only for he to seemingly dissolve away like sand right before them. The now sand substance instantly turned to mist when Kakashi tried to grabbed it again, whooshing as a sudden gust of wind seemed to disbursed it and it complete was gone. All that was left was an odd pendant of a white circle and a black circle connected to each other through the loops and on a seemingly small bent nail. "...What the hell?" Kakashi asked, getting up while trying to figure out what had just happened. He picked up the pendant, noticing it was connected to a chain. He noticed the pointed of the nail was towards the white circle's hole.

"What... What just happened?" Iruka stood there, completely horrified as to what had just happened. "W-Was that a g-genjutsu?" Kakashi lifted up his headband, exposing a red left eye with three tomoe markers around the pupil as he looked around the area with his other eye close. He let out a sigh, covering the eye back up as he tried to calm himself down.

"No... And there is no trace of her chakra either. Not even the chakra to pull off a jutsu of any kind either." Kakashi said, his now reopened eye narrowed at the shrine before them.

"B-B-But, how is that possible?!" Iruka shouted, trying to figure out what has just happened. "Someone doesn't just turn to sand and disappear right before your eyes?! She died and disappeared! Especially without a jutsu!" Iruka gripped his head, trying to keep it together. Even after being a ninja for so long, this was something he never dealt with before. Add the fact it had happened to a child the same age as his students... "A-And you lied! Naruto is still missing! Possibly dead as well!"

"I didn't," Iruka looked at Kakashi with shock. "The Hokage finally managed to find both boys with his crystal ball... They are alive, but even with the Hokage's skills with that jutsu, he still cannot locate them."

"N-Nani? W-When?" Iruka asked, wanting to know why noone had been informed.

"I was just briefed with getting back from my last mission." Iruka eyes widen as he looked where Kakashi was and found the shrine no longer there. "W-What the?" Kakashi reached his hand towards where the shrine was and managed to grip something in thin air, pulling it back and as if it came out of water surface, the teddy bear the girl left once up appeared in Kakashi's hand. "I-I'm skilled at genjutsu... But, I don't even sense it!... Kai!" Iruka made the hand seals for a release, but was shock the shrine was still invisible.

"It's not a genjutsu. Not even the Sharingan can see through it as I noticed earlier." Kakashi sighed, looking at the stuffed bear with a stern look to his eyes. "However, Umino-san, I need to ask you a favor."

"A favor? Now?" Iruka asked, wondering... More like hoping someone slipped drugs or something in his drink earlier while he was at the academy. Even with being a ninja, this was too surreal.

"The Hokage has assigned me with the mission of tracking down Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. The two boys are at least not captured from what the Hokage managed to figure out. Though, it seems the two boys may not have appeared again for a reason... That girl said some of her friends were taken by something and the link was a television."

"... No way... They got away and are now hiding?" Iruka said, realizing now what Kakashi was getting at.

"Though, it might be more than just that. She said whoever or whatever grabbed her friend used the television to teleport." Kakashi sighed, putting the bear and pendant in his pouch as evidence of what happened.

"They could be anywhere." Iruka said before realizing something else. "No... Though that is true... How they got there might still be here in Konoha."

"Hai... Though, it seems Uzumaki-san was involved with something more that is right under all our noses and is now the one probably aimed for... And, it seemingly kills without leaving even a body behind." Kakashi sighed, wondering how to explain this to the Hokage. "Iruka, can you get reports of all the missing children from civilians?"

"Uchiha-san and Naruto are not the only ones?" Iruka asked, a pit forming in his stomach before he gulped and pushed the fear down. He straighten himself up and faced Kakashi with a determination in his eyes. "Alright. I should have no problem with being a teacher myself. Should we go report this to the Hokage now or gather the data?"

"Yes... Right away. Even if this is possibly an emergency, permission from the Hokage should ease the process of getting the information we need." Kakashi sighed before they both headed towards the Hokage's residence. 'But... What exactly was Naruto dealing with?' Kakashi thought, pondering how well known "scorn" of Konoha was being mourned by unknowns and connected to a girl seemingly disappearing right before two ninja's eyes?

* * *

Endnote: Alright. I hope you all like this so far. Review and let me know. I will try to have the other two chapters done either in this month or next before going a normal update of one chapter at a time.


	4. Ch 4: Man, Where the Heck Are We?

Author Note: Okay! Finally posting these chapters. I had some delays due to work. However, after these two chapters and maybe Chapter 6, my updates will slow down. However, along with posting these chapters, I have a new story coming up on my account. I am only posting the prologue today. However, I am aiming for both to post a chapter roughly every month while getting my career on track. Once I figure things out, I can probably shorten the time when I post chapters. Just like when I post the first three chapters, there won't be an endnote on this chapter and there won't be a author note in the beginning of Ch.5, though Ch. 5 has the endnote. However, before things get rolling, a bit of a note. I made a limit on how long I do these chapters... Which you will realize pretty soon why with the next two chapters. Because of this... Well, you'll find out in Ch.5. I will try to have Ch.6 done by February and set my rough dates for updating this story.

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not own the series with the acronym PMMM. They belong to their owners and this is just fanfiction. I am referring to one series through the acronym to not spoil the rewrite and plot due to it becoming a tri-crossover. If you spoil it for others, shame on you.

* * *

Ch. 4 "Man… Where the heck are we?"

Sasuke yawned while getting up, sleepily blinking his eyes. 'Was that a dream?' Sasuke thought before seeing the television facing the wall. "...Nope.." Sasuke grumbled, getting up and ready for the day ahead. 'That's the second time I been dragged into the television... Thankfully, not fully like last time.'

"Good Morning, Sasuke." Sasuke's eyebrow twitched, finding Naruto wearing the pink apron with a heart on the chest again, but instead of the simple shirt and shorts he wore the other day, he was wearing his Yasogami High School uniform with his orange coat on. He was finishing putting three bentos together, looking at Sasuke. However, when Sasuke took his eyes off the eyesore did he noticed something different on Naruto's face.

"Glasses?" Sasuke asked, kind of shocked at seeing Naruto wearing a pair of glasses. They were circle glasses with a thin violet frame.

"Hai. Dojima forgot to give them to me last night due to falling asleep." Sasuke nodded, looking away with embarrassment with forgetting Naruto had bad eyesight. "However, this means I finally get to go to school with you."

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Sasuke said, sitting down at the table, finding Nanako again had been waiting on him before eating into her own breakfast of omelet Naruto had made.

"Don't know. Don't remember... But..." Sasuke shivered as Naruto adjusted his glasses which suddenly gotten a glare on them. "Why the heck does this world even HAVE schools physically anymore? The internet allows for a vast amount of information to be stored and ship to where it need to be just fine! I learned more yesterday playing around on a computer than I ever did from textbooks!" Naruto puffed out his cheeks in annoyance while Nanako and Sasuke sweated at the blond.

"Maybe because it allows you to meet other people?" Nanako asked, though confused by Naruto's little rant.

"Maybe you're better at learning by seeing it than reading about it." Sasuke gave a sigh while smiling at the blond. 'But... It seems you might be finding yourself again without your memories.' Sasuke thought, drinking the milk next to his plate. It was kind of shocking Naruto was no longer having a full poker face like when they had woken up from the accident just days before. 'Though, he still has a way to go...' Sasuke watched as Naruto put up the apron and gotten all the dishes put away as soon as Nanako and he finished their breakfast.

"Oh, it's raining..." Naruto said as the three got into the hallway to leave to school. "This place sure gets a lot of rain."

"It's only been lately it's been rainy and foggy more often." Nanako sighed, somewhat annoyed while taking her Magical Detective Loveline umbrella from the umbrella rack. "Well, I got to meet from friends before getting to school!" Nanako chimed, waving as she left the two in the house and running through the rain.

"Odd..." Naruto mumbled, taking out his own umbrella Ryotaro got him. "Let's also get going. I rather get through the rain as fast as possible."

"Agreed" Sasuke sighed, walking out with his own umbrella opened, making sure to lock the door and close it. "So, Naruto, what did you learn from the computer?" Sasuke asked, curious of what Naruto has been doing since he at least knows Naruto cannot deal with being bored from what he seen.

"Let's see... Coding, using certain programs, and so on." Sasuke paled, not having a clue what Naruto was talking about. "It's quite amazing... Technology is always awesome." Naruto chimed, adjusting his glasses again.

"You seem used to glasses." Sasuke said, wondering how he would deal with wearing glasses.

"I wore a pair, but I don't know what happened to them." Sasuke frowned as Naruto spun around and began walking backwards. "I think I only wore them at home to try and keep them from being damaged, but then lost them somehow."

"I could see that happening." Sasuke chuckled, knowing Naruto was a bit of a klutz at the academy. "Though, why those frames? You had a choice or they chose for you?"

"I choose them. I think that are similar to my old pair." Naruto pouted at Sasuke. "What's wrong with my choice of glasses?"

"It's just seems to not match how I remember you... But, when I think about it, they do match you with what I seen..." Sasuke sighed, realizing he was not thinking of the "real" Naruto when he started his sentence. Heck, he had learned more about Naruto in just a few days in Inaba then he did all his time he was with Naruto in the academy.

"Really? They are not geeky to you?" Sasuke sweated as the blond was looking away, his face showing a bit of embarrassment.

'Don't tell me you never wore your glasses in public because of that!' Sasuke thought, though understood why the blond would not want to look like a geek in a ninja academy. Instant bully material, though he already had enough problems with the other classmates not being for his side to begin with. 'Now that I think about it... Why did everyone not like Naruto?' Sasuke pondered before hearing splashing behind him.

"Perfect timing!" Sasuke suddenly found his umbrella taken from his hand and looked to the side to see Chie. "I'll take that!" Chie chimed with a goofy grin, forcing Sasuke to share his umbrella with her.

"What happened to your umbrella?" Sasuke asked, though shocked he did not sense her. 'But, then again, I haven't trained in a couple of days... I need to get back to it or else I will lose my edge.'

"I did have my own, but I saw this kung fu movie where they used an umbrella to pull off some sweet moves... And I accidently broke mine trying to mimic the movie." Sasuke sweated at the older girl.

'So, that's why she changed the subject back at Junes when going into martial arts... She's obsessed with taijutsu.' Sasuke thought, though now understood her violent nature more.

"By the way... did you see it?!" Sasuke snapped from his thoughts, realizing what she meant.

"We did!" Sasuke said, about to say more though Chie beat him to the punch.

"Aha, do tell. But the person it showed..." Chie looked down for a moment before shaking her head. "Never mind. I'll save it for when the others are around. We're gonna be late for school." Sasuke shivered at the thought before both looked down the road to see Naruto jogging in place, waiting for them. They began walking again for Chie to speak up. "I-It's kina awkward to only bring this up now, but... we're pretty close here... U-Um, I'm gonna just go ahead and run the rest of the way!"

"Then let's have a race." Sasuke said, deciding to mix his joke with a bit of common sense since he wanted to get out of the dreary rain.

"Huh?! We're BOTH gonna run through the rain?!" Chie sweated at Sasuke. "What's the point in that? Besides, it's not like I wanted to make a break for it... Haha, am I worrying too much? Eh, I'll keep going with you anyway." Chie chuckled, moving forward. "Alright, let's go." Chie chimed as they walked towards Naruto who fell in line before they began small talk.

-Television-

"Alright! Shut ya traps!" Sasuke frowned as Mr. Morooka stood before the class as Naruto wrote his name on the board. "We got ourselves another wash-out from the city! You girls better not think about getting-"

"You're annoying." Everyone paled at seeing "King Moron" getting hit in the forehead with a piece of chalk from Naruto who just finished writing his name. "Why are you already labeling stereotypical clichés on someone you don't even a lick about yet? Are you truly a teacher?"

"Hrnh! You listen hear shi-"

"Is it because of your own low self-esteem, or are you a sadist?" Mr. Mooroka recoiled from the sudden question. "Do you realize your behavior has on others or do you don't care?"

"Uh... What are-"

"Also, why would the girls go out with me when I am several years younger? Wouldn't they possibly get in trouble with the law?... Uh... Are you okay?" Naruto asked, realizing the pale face coming from .

"J-Just go to your seat..." Mr. Mooroka pointed to the back seat behind Yosuke, his face flush in embarrassment.

"Are you really okay?" Naruto asked, confused while noticing 's face turning redder.

"Just go sit down, Gatling Gun!" Naruto only blinked in confusion before walking to his seat and sitting down. began roll call, though still a bit shaken.

"Dude... Did you just seriously defeat King Moron?" Yosuke whispered back to him in shock.

"Defeat King Moron?" Naruto asked, though softly. "But, all I was doing was asking questions?" Naruto blinked in confusion.

"..." Sasuke stared at Naruto, before looking forward with his face drained of color. 'I guess there's a reason Naruto acted the class clown in the academy... I would be afraid of a student who did that as well.' Sasuke thought, though thankful the bell rang quickly for their first class of the day. bolted out, not wanting to be probe by Naruto again.

"King Moron was bested!"

"I never seen him so flustered!"

"But, I would be too! I couldn't keep up with what all the transfer student said!"

"That kid's a monster with psychological warfare with a mouth. Gatling Gun might be a fitting nickname."

'And the rumors go wild.' Sasuke thought as got out of dodge to go to the class he was teaching for 1st period. 'Though, today will be a tough morning... World history... This world has had more wars and cultures than the one Naruto and I come from!' Sasuke let out a tired sigh before his eyes widen in shock.

"Hello, everyone!" Sasuke was unable to keep his jaw from going limp with seeing the world history teacher. She would look like a normal, somewhat beauty lady... If it weren't for her odd makeup which made her eyes look long, the fact she was wearing a black and yellow striped headdress with what looked to be a golden snake coming out right at the forehead part of the headdress, and holding some kind of similar color staff with a curve on the end.

'What the hell?' Sasuke asked, wondering exactly where the common sense was in many of the people of this world. In fact, the only normal ones he seen so far what some of the high schoolers and the Dojimas!

"My name is Kimiko Sohue, and I don't know much you know about world history, but I'm an expert." The woman who looked more fit in some other world then where they were at to Sasuke said with a happy chime. "First, a little about me. I love to use my dowser to look for lost items, and there's nothing quite like a romance. In fact, world history is a magnificent romance. History is like a river, it was born in the past and flows ever forward. I hope we can all enjoy the profundity of history together. Hohoho. And since this is my first lecture, I'll start with an easy question. Our newest transferee, Uzumaki-san, please stand up."

'I pity you...' Sasuke thought while comically crying, still trying to catch up in studying. Naruto had it much worse since it seems studying is not his strong point.

"The western calendar is based on Anno Domii, the traditionally believed year of Jesus Christ's birth. What is the year before 1 AD called?" Sofue asked, pointing at Naruto who was now standing next to his desk.

"1 BC or year one of Christ birth." Naruto answered. "However, the system time table is always debated due to people not able to figure out if the Christian icon was actually born in BC instead at the start of AD system."

"Correct!" Sasuke simply sat there frozen in shock. "I see you understand this quite well and even more. If you think that history is like math, 0 AD would be the natural assumption, but world history is much more complicated. The Gregorian calendar we use today is based on the Julian calendar, which was made while there was no concept of zero as a number. That's why, when counting backwards, we go from 1 AD straight to 1 BC. Hopefully that was a nice introduction to world history..." Naruto sat down as Sofue started the lecture.

'Naruto... You scare me at times.' Sasuke thought, wondering how the blond knew the answer with remembering he sucked at studying and even only been in this world for a few days. 'Maybe Konoha should invest in computers for learning.' Sasuke thought, quickly getting into writing notes with not wanting to fall behind in class. He was already having enough headaches with just catching up as someone from another world.

-Television-

"What's up with the body being hung upside-down? That's so freaky!" Sasuke listened to some girls talking after school. He was, though, more focus on trying to figure out if the school here had a "crazy teachers only" hiring policy and what Naruto did on the computer to become smart.

'Makes me think ninja are more sane than civilians.' Sasuke thought, though then catching onto what the girls was talking about. He remembered what happened last night, and wondered how close he was of dying again. 'But, then again, maybe what happened in that place allowed Naruto's brain to become a sponge since he is missing his memories.'

"Is it supposed to be like, mimicking an execution? It's messed up…"

"My senpai told me it was a third-year named Saki who found the body."

Sasuke turned around, hearing footsteps to see Yosuke, Naruto was busy writing in a notebook. "Y-yo, um…It's, uh, it's not really that important, but…Well, yesterday on TV, I…" Yosuke groaned while scratching his head. "Oh, uhh… Never mind. Look, I'll tell you later. Ahaha…" Yosuke sheepishly laughed as Chie walked up.

"Yosuke, did you hear the rumor? Saki-senpai's supposedly the one who discovered that body." Chie sighed as Yosuke looked down.

"…I wonder if that's why she looked so down… She doesn't seem to be at school today either." Yosuke sighed with worry.

Chie noticed Yukiko getting up. "Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the inn today too?"

"Things are really out of hand right now… I'm sorry." Yukiko sighed, looking pretty tired before she left.

"Is it just me, or does Yukiko-san seems way stressed out today?" Yosuke asked in a whisper.

Chie sighed while shaking her head. "I guess they're running her ragged." But, then, Chie changed the subject, "By the way, did you see… it… last night?"

"Huh?" Yosuke paled. "Uh, well… What about you?"

"I did! I seriously saw a girl!" Chie said in shock. But… My soulmate's a girl? What's that supposed to mean? I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure… Her hair was brown, about shoulder length. She was wearing our school uniform, and…"

"Her hair was pale blond hair…" Chie and Yosuke nearly jumped out of their socks when Naruto spoke, having stood up with his stuff put away. "Though, in the lighting… It looked brown." Sasuke remembered the details well because of the scare as well.

"W-Who... Oh, Naruto...H-Hey… I think that's the same person I saw…." Yosuke sheepishly chuckled, realizing who Naruto was. "I couldn't make out much detail, though. The image I saw was much blurrier…"

"Wait, so you all saw it too?" Chie gasped. "And we saw the same girl…? Does that mean… we have the same soulmate?"

"How should I know?" Yosuke sighed. "How 'bout you, Sasuke? Did you see it?" Yosuke asked, though seemed to believe Sasuke already seen it with what he said before.

"Yes. I was with Naruto, too, and saw the same thing. However… Something freaky happen last night. We both saw the same girl… But… Then, I heard a voice in my head and ringing in both our heads… It was familiar… But not… And then when I touch the television screen, my hand went into the screen like it was water and then something tried to drag me in… Luckily, I got stuck thanks to being too big as well as Naruto grabbing me and we were able to pull me out." Sasuke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I thin-"

"It sounds like we all saw the same person…" Yosuke sighed while Sasuke giving him a death glare that seemed to not faze the masochist. "But, weird voices aside, what was that about getting sucked into your TV?" Yosuke chuckled. "Were you that tired last night? You must've just fallen asleep in front of your TV."

"That'd be one interesting dream, though. I like the part where you got stuck 'cause your TV was too small. That's pretty realistic..." Chie chimed. "Well, if it had been bigger, the— Ohhh, that reminds me. Our family's been talking about buying a bigger TV."

"Oh yeah?" Yosuke smirked. "We'll, flat screen TVs are definitely in these days. Wanna go check 'em out on the way back? We're beefing up our electronics department this month."

Chie smiled with joy beaming in her eyes. "Oh, definitely! My parents don't know anything about electronics, and I've just gotta see my kung-fu movies on the big screen! Hwa-taaaa!" Chie did a fighting pose which Sasuke just gave them annoyed look.

'Is kung-fu or taijutsu more important than the fact I was nearly dragged into the television?' Sasuke thought before noticing Yosuke looking at him.

"We've got some pretty big ones in stock. I bet they'd be big enough for you to fit into, hehe." Yosuke joked as Sasuke only let out a sigh at the guy mocking him.

'I am not shocked they don't believe me…Only if they knew I was sucked in before.' Sasuke frowned in thought before noticing Naruto slightly drooling. "Uh... Naruto, are you alright?"

"Yes..." Naruto corrected himself. "Headphone-chan, you said your electronics department was being beefed up?" Naruto adjusted his glasses, making the three shiver at smirk.

"H-Hai... And the name is Yosuke..." Yosuke nervously chuckled, all three wondering exactly what was going on in the blond's brain.

-Television-

Chie, Yosuke, Sasuke, and Naruto went to the electronics section of Junes after talking at the school. Sasuke wanting to prove a hunch he had, even if the two high school students did not believe him. Though, in a way, he also did not want a repeat of last night.

"Wow, this is huge!" Sasuke sweated, swearing in his mind he was losing his hearing from Chie's shouts. It kind of made him wish Naruto was loud again as at least he did not yell into one's ear. "And… Holy crap, it's expensive! Who buys something like this?"

"I dunno…" Yosuke shrugged. "Rich folks?... Honestly, not many people shop for TVs here. That's why we don't have clerks around." However, Yosuke noticed Naruto not really paying attention to them, focused more on electrical components for repairs near the television.

"Huh… Not worth trying then, I guess. Well, at least looking's free." Chie sighed before Yosuke and she went up to the screen and touched it, yet nothing happened.

"… Nope, can't get in. Figures." Yosuke sighed.

"Haha. This proves it." Chie chimed. "It was all just a dream."

"Seriously, guys... It might only-"

"Besides, these flat-screen TVs are so thin, you'd just end up on the other side. Argh, what am I saying?" Yosuke groaned before changing the subject. "So, Chie. What kind of TV are you guys in the market for?" Sasuke gave them both sour face, not too happy with them ignoring what he was trying to say.

"O-Oh, they said they wanted one that's cheap. You got any suggestions?" Chie asked, not noticing the pissed Uchiha as they walked over to some other televisions.

Yosuke cleared his throat. "Well, Miss, might I suggest this one over here? It's the newest model, just released this spring." Yosuke said in his best salesman's voice.

"Wha-that's not cheap at all! There's way too many zeroes!" Chie growled in anger.

Yosuke only sweated with a sigh. "I should've asked what you meant by 'cheap' right off the bat."

"You've got connections, right?" Chie chimed. "C'mon, hook me up!"

"You know I can't do that…" Yosuke groaned. "Hey, how about this one over here. It's a display unit and it's a little old…"

'Man… How can I prove...' Sasuke then looked at the television and put his hand to the television screen. He shock when the screen became liquid when he touched it and his hand went through. "So, I can do it, but others can't..." Sasuke said calmly, Naruto looking at him for a moment before turning back to what he was looking at having already seen it. Though, Naruto was ready to jump in case something like last night happened again. He just really wanted to find what he was looking for as salvaging the parts from old things is a pain.

"Oh yeah, Sasuke, Naruto, what kind of TV do you-" Yosuke just gapped and stared at Sasuke who now had half his arm into the television.

"Huh? Something wrong, Yosuke?" Chie turned around and also panicked.

"Is his arm… in the TV…?" Yosuke stuttered in shock.

"Whoa…" Chie said, pale as a ghost. "Uhhh… Is that some kinda… new model? L-Like with a new function?"

"Hell no!" Yosuke shouted before they both ran over to the Sasuke, completely horrified by what they were seeing.

"You gotta be kidding me… Did you really stick your hand through the screen?" Chie gasped in horror.

"Oh man… This is for real… That's some magic trick, man!" Yosuke shouted. "So how's it work, huh? What's the magician's secret!?"

"…" Sasuke noticed both of them looking at him, astonished before doing a slight smirk with realizing the size of the television... So he got close and suck his head inside the television.

"H-Hey, don't do that! What're you doing?" Yosuke shouted while Sasuke smirked, getting back at them for not believing earlier.

"Oh my Kami!" Chie gasped.

"Hmm… It's empty space inside here." Sasuke sighed, annoyed at the fog. 'Wait... Fog?' Sasuke's eyes widen at the realization of the inside of the television was foggy and there seemed to be structures inside. 'Could this be...?' Sasuke strained his eyes, trying to see through the fog.

"Wh-What do you mean, 'inside?'" Yosuke shouted in a panic.

"Wh-What do you mean, 'empty space'?" Chie was on the verge of freaking out.

"…Why are you two freaking out so much?…" Naruto asked calmly, not looking at them. He only rolled his eyes as the two kept freaking out, missing his question completely. 'But, then again... This seems to be something I am used to and it is not normal to them.' Naruto sighed, sensing nothing bad coming from the television, so let them be.

"Damn... This place is spacious..." Sasuke groaned, trying hard to make out the structures, but couldn't from the fog.

"Wh-What do you mean, 'spacious'?" Yosuke shouted.

"I mean, what's going on?" Chie finally said what both of them were trying to ask while Yosuke began to do the potty dance.

"Holy crap… I-I think this is all too much for my bladder." Yosuke groaned, looking like a tap dancer who was dancing on tacks.

"What the-? Are you gonna pee you pants?" Chie shouted in shock.

"I've been holding it in all day!" Yosuke grunted. "I-I haven't had a chance to go… Aaargh! Can't… hold it… anymore…!" Yosuke ran off only to run back. "Shit! Customers! They're coming!"

"What?" Chie gasped in shock. "But we've got a guy half stuck in a TV here! Wh-What're we gonna do?" Chie shouted in panic as both began to run around trying to figure out what to do.

"Just pull him out..." Naruto sighed, somewhat annoyed at their panicking. He turned around to stop them only to watch as Yosuke and Chie to trip on each other and hit Sasue and the three all fell inside the television screen.

"Shit!" Naruto jumped into the air as the kid of the family Yosuke saw coming run toward the television.

"What the?!" The parents yelped as a sudden loud click sound while seeing a slight flash of violet light came from the television aisle. They looking towards the large screens with turning the corner to catch up with their son to find no one there and some of the televisions on and others off. "Nani?"

"Momma! Dadda! I saw a superhero go through the TV!" The boy chimed, his parent's shaking their head with thinking it was just some commercial for a new kids show, never noticing the fact the items across from the television shaking slightly and the whole self had been moved slightly from where it was.

"How I do that?" Naruto asked, finding himself flying through the air in a foggy place after launching himself into the television after the others. "It felt... natural..." Naruto sighed, trying to remember as he knew he overshot where the others had to have landed. His eyes widen when he suddenly straight upward, making himself slow down before flipping and landing on the balls of his feet and jogging forward a bit before skipping to a stop.

"..." Naruto looked around him, seeing he was in a fogged filled area, the structures around him seemingly showing he was on some kind of streets. "Not the same area... But the same place." Naruto said, calmly looking closing his eyes and relaxing. "Sasuke, Headphones, and Jersey... Several feet that way." Naruto pointed towards where he launched from. "Condition, good... But for how long, no clue... Whatever attacked Sasuke me before seem to be calm with fog and it maybe the same as them in Inaba... They only attack someone like me." Naruto sighed, assessing the situation. "Since I am alone, I need to keep my focus. One slip and I am dead." Naruto said before hearing a scream. He instantly turned towards it, jumping straight into a fighting position.

"RUUUUUUUN!" Naruto blinked seeing a blue furred... thing run past him at fast pace.

"Huh?" Naruto looked back, catching a glimpse it was slightly humanoid and wearing something red before it was out of sight. "...I guess this maybe similar to their places, but not in the sense I thought it was... That thing must have been one of the inhabitants that don't attack..." Naruto then looked down, spotting something at his feet. "Goggles?" Naruto picked up a pair of violet frame goggles which looked to be for outwear. The lenses were tinted slightly yellow. "It must of dropped them... Oh, they seem big enough to go over my glasses." Naruto put the goggles on, hoping to keep dirt from getting into his eyes in case of a fight. However, he recoiled with finding everything suddenly became clearer, the fog seemingly mostly gone except for some on the lower ground. He now could see he seemed to be in a city like area, the streets dark as the sky was an odd two tone red color constantly moving and adding an orange tint to the higher parts of the area while the bottom was yellowish in tint.

"I see... This particular area matches the world Sasuke and I am in. It's a world that reflects the other world... I think." Naruto sighed before noticing movement ahead of him in the shadows and slowly moving towards him. "And it seems things can also affect this plane, even if it is something left behind by one." Naruto grabbed the street sign next to him while grinning. "Oh, well, a little training never hurts."

-Television-

"Ow…I landed right on my wallet." Yosuke groaned as Sasuke, Chie, and he sat up from their nasty fall.

"Man… Where the heck are we?" Chie asked, looking at the fog filled area they were at as they stood up. "What is this place? Some place inside Junes?"

"We're in television, I think." Sasuke calmly stated, looking around. He noticed the metal structures around them, seemingly holding up lights. 'No way... Is this-'

"No way!" Chie shouted, making Sasuke jump as she faced her. "Don't sound so calm while spouting nonsense!"

"But-"

"Man, this hurts too much not to be real." Yosuke groaned, rubbing his butt. "I cracked my rear..."

"That's nothing new." Sasuke sighed, slightly annoyed. "But-"

"How'd we get in here anyway?" Chie asked, stopping Sasuke from speaking while looking around frantically. "I don't see an entrance anywhere!"

"I can't see through the fog..." Sasuke sighed, noticing how thick it was. "However-

"Wh-Wh-What now!?" Yosuke shouted, making Sasuke bit his lip in frustration with the fawn hair teenager as he ran up to Chie.

"I dunno! Don't ask me!" Chie shouted, also panicking like her male punching bag. "I wanna go home! Right this second!"

"Yeah, but how?!" Yosuke shouted before all three of them heard squeaking.

"Nani?... What's that?" Chie asked before they noticed a mass moving towards them in the fog at a fast rate. "Aiiiieee!" Chie screamed, running with Yosuke following her.

"Wait, you two!" Sasuke shouted, chasing after them. 'They don't know this place is dangerous!' However, the two frighten high schoolers kept running through the area, going up stairs and across paths before they hit a room with a slightly open door, slamming it shut after Sasuke ended up in the room. Once inside and taking the time to catch their breath.

"At least we lost whatever that was..." Chie said between pants.

"Where are we?" Sasuke asked, realizing the fog was much thinner. They were in a simple bedroom with ripped up posters of some woman in a kimono plastered all over the walls. Yosuke gasped in horror find a noose made from a scarf near the bed, a chair right under it as if ready to be used by someone.

"What is this place?" Chie asked, shaking in fear. "This is messed up..." Sasuke walked over to the chair where the noose was hanging over before noticing a larger poster out of all the posters, though they all looked the same. He noticed it looked familiar, but could not place why do to the face was ripped off.

"Mwuuuaaaa!" Sasuke and Chie looked at Yosuke who shouted.

"Nani?! What is it?!" Chie shouted, looking around in pure terror.

"My bladder has had it!" Sasuke gave Yosuke an annoyed look while the teenager was hopping around due to his bladder. He ran to the other corner of the room, near the door.

"Nani? That's all?!" Chie growled, furious from the fright Yosuke gave her before hearing a zipper. "You're peeing right here?! Gimme a break! Please stop him, Uchiha!" Chie looked at Sasuke.

"Eh? Why?" Sasuke asked, getting a look of surprise from Chie. However, he was more focused on figuring out their current situation than worrying about Yosuke's bladder bursting. He knew this place wasn't safe, but there hasn't been anything that attacked them yet. However, he did notice the splatter all over the room and floor near the walls. Some of which was red... The same color as blood. 'Was... someone attacked here?'

"I can't go if you guys are watching!" Yosuke groaned before zipping his pants back up. "Oh, crud! It's your fault if my bladder bursts!"

"You're unbelievable!" Chie shouted while opening the door and walking out. "It's not like I wanted to watch anyway!"

"Wait-"

"EEEEH?!" Both Sasuke and Yosuke heard Chie's shout and ran out the door.

"What is it?! What's wrong?!" Yosuke shouted as they got outside, showing to be some apartment complex with outdoor halls. However, Sasuke and Yosuke were shocked to see what Chie screamed at. "What is that?" Yosuke said as they looked over what looked to be a bear mascot with blue fur and wearing a red and white type of outfit. It even had a simple zipper between where the head of the creature and the outfit met.

"R-Right back at you!" The bear shouted, pointing back at them with narrowed eyes.

"I-It can talk?!" Chie asked while Sasuke narrowed his eyes, putting his hand up the other self, getting a kunai just in case.

"I'm a bear!" The bear mascot growled. "I've lived here since bear-ever!"

"What is with this guy?! It's beyond me!" Yosuke shouted, frightening the bear though he was just as freaked out as it.

"Keep your voices down and move!" The bear said in a panic. "We got to run!" The bear said, fear clearly written on its face. All of them suddenly heard notices around them. "The Shadows! The Shadows are coming!" The bear managed to get pass them.

"Shadow? Chie asked before finding the bear right behind them with coming out of the room.

"It's a bear-end!?" The bear shouted. "What are we going to do?!"

"What do you mean?! What's your problem?!" Yosuke shouted before they all heard the noises now before them. All of them looked before them, seeing something coming towards them through the fog. "Huh? Uzumaki... san?" Chie asked, noticing the figure looked much like Naruto. However, their eyes widen in horror with seeing more figures and beginning to see their features. "W-What are those?" Chie asked.

"T-Those..." Sasuke stuttered, shaking while pulling out the kunai. 'THAT'S what attack Naruto and me!?' Sasuke thought, terror feeling ever fiber of his body.

Before them, slumping along like zombie was beings that seemed to be made scribbles of different colors, though mainly appeared to be like Naruto, but twisted and monstrous. The only part of their bodies that looked somewhat real was bluish masks that seemed broken and with different emotions. They were moaning an unknown language to the four, reaching towards them with claws sharp like blades.

"Stay back!" Sasuke shouted, throwing the kunai and nailing the first one in the forehead.

"Nice hit-Wah?!" Yosuke cheer instantly turned into confusion as the kunai was absorbed into the creature which then suddenly turned into a blade coming out of the monster's arm... Which suddenly all the other monsters gained as well. "Nani?! You armed them?!" Yosuke and Chie stepped, Sasuke pulling out another kunai.

'W-What are these things?' Sasuke thought, holding the kunai in both hands to be ready for a trust... But, he found himself trembling hard, unable to calm himself down. 'I-I can't move...' Sasuke thought, seeing the monsters bending their legs, ready to attack. 'A-Am I about to die?' Sasuke thought, shocked when the monsters suddenly launched at them.

"SAVE ME!" The bear shouted from behind the group as they all closed their eyes, ready to be hit... When they heard slamming sound instead of feeling pain.

"Sasuke, Headphones, Jersey, Bear! Move it!" The group opened their eyes, finding the beasts being held against the wall with a street sign and post which Uzumaki Naruto struggling to use to keep the monsters pinned. They noticed he was wearing goggles for some reason as well. "I can't fight with this weapon in this tight space! Run!"

"Hai!" Sasuke shouted, nodding with snapping out of his shock. The four of them run, dodging the attempted attacks of the monsters before Naruto let them go, knocking them back with a trust with the street sign before following them.

"What the hell are those things?!" Chie shouted as they managed to leave the apartment complex like place back to the fog filled area with metal structures.

"Shadows!" The bear shouted before the group stopped, seeing Naruto having stopped behind them. "What are you doing?! We got to hide!"

"Yeah! Like he said!" Yosuke shouted seeing the monsters was chasing them, now running instead of the zombie like movements before.

"Now I can fight." Naruto said, readying the street sign and post as if it was a spear.

"Wha?! You can't fight those things?!" Chie shouted as the monsters charged at Naruto.

"I don't remember... But my body does." Naruto said, dodging the attacks of the monsters. He instantly parried the attacks, taking out two with swing the side with the sign and slashing the two into half.

"Nani?" Yosuke gasped, all of them shocked seeing Naruto easily fighting off the monsters. It was like instead of a life threatening fight, Naruto was simply dancing among the beasts. The instant one of the monsters attacked, he parried it or dodge with an ease. It was as if he was giving a performance instead of fighting for his life.

'Naruto... How?' Sasuke thought, trying to figure out exactly how this was possible. 'You were always horrible at fighting... Yet...' Sasuke pushed the kunai into Yosuke's hands. "Hold onto that!"

"What?!" Yosuke yelped while Sasuke ran towards Naruto.

"Naruto! Move to the side!" Naruto nodded while Sasuke stopped and flashed through hand signs. 'I have to do something!' "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke unleashed a giant fire ball straight at the monsters as Naruto jumped off the path and used his weapon to hang off one of the metal structures as the fire ball engulfed the whole path, catching all the monsters within its grip.

"Holy shit?! You can shot fire from your mouth?!" Yosuke shouted while Sasuke smirked, looking at them before seeing Yosuke's horrified look. "Look out!" Sasuke turned back seeing three of the monsters, still burning, having jumped out of the flames and heading straight for him.

"Checkmate" The monsters looked behind themselves just in time to see Naruto who slashed them in half with one swing, landing in a kneeling position behind Sasuke as the burning parts hit the ground.

"N-Naruto?" Sasuke asked, shocked at how fast Naruto was. 'How is he this fast? Heck... How is he able to even fight monsters where I couldn't?!' Then Sasuke gulped, realizing a simple possibility which made sense to him. 'Naruto's an ANBU... He doesn't have to act like a deadlast if his memories are sealed in beads and can store the ones where he is an ANBU... It's just like he is a normal kid... Or... It could be he is an experiment and mixed with his own sealed memories are the memories of real ANBU who have died... It's the only way...' Sasuke tighten his fists, glad he was not facing the other while biting his lip... But then relaxed them and his shoulders. "It's the same as him..." Sasuke whispered, realizing the possibly now a possibility he failed to realize for four years. 'It was possibly not his fault...' Sasuke thought, turning to see the others running up to Naruto.

"Are you alright?!" The bear shouted in worry.

"Yes... Is there any others?" Naruto asked, looking at the bear.

"..." Yosuke and Chie looked at the bear weirdly as it moved around sniffing. "No! No more Shadows in the area, sir!" The bear saluted as Naruto nodded and took off the goggles.

"H-Hey! We're right back where we started!" Chie pointed out as they were on the same platform as before they looked around more, all while Naruto walked where the flames had been, having died as the monsters were gone.

"Whoa?!" Yosuke shouted, seeing their eyes had adjusted some to the fog for them to see the full on area somewhat.

"W-What now? Did you wet your pants?" Chie asked, somewhat annoyed. Though, she could understand with what just happened.

"No, stupid! Look around!" Yosuke pointed out the area seemed to be like some kind of stages with lights on the towers.

"Is this... a studio?" Chie asked aloud, "There's no place like this in Inaba, for sure... It's so foggy."

"Yeah... Perfect for more monsters to come after us." Yosuke shivered, amazed he really didn't wet his pants back there. However, when he looked down to think, he noticed something at his feet. "Huh? What's this?" Sasuke, Chie, and the bear looked at Yosuke to find he picked up a purple bead which Sasuke recognzied.

"That-" All three were shocked when Yosuke doubled over, collapsing to his knees. "Hey?! Are you alright?!" Sasuke asked gripping Yosuke's shoulder.

"Hic..." Sasuke blinked as Yosuke began to sob, shaking hard.

"Whoa?! Are you crying, Yosuke?!" Chie asked, kind of shocked.

"I-I am? Hic?" Yosuke asked, his expression showing confusion as he cried. "I-I d-don't hic know why hic.. But... I... Hic... Feel... So...Hic... Sad...Hic... And... Lonely." Yosuke sobbed, rubbing his eyes to try and stop the emotions that were flooded into him.

"I see... When someone else holds onto one of the beads, even though they cannot access my memories... The emotions from them can be accessed." Naruto sighed, dropping his weapon as he walked over to the others, holding something in one of his hands.

"Wait... 'My memories?'" Chie asked, confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"Naruto's memories are stored inside beads like the one Yosuke is holding." Everyone focused on Sasuke. "Earlier, when you were panicking, I was trying to tell you what was going on... As you saw, this place is dangerous... However, Naruto and I were in here before."

"Wait... Hic... What?" Yosuke asked, still sobbing before finding Naruto forced his hand open and took the bead from him... He found the emotions now gone, though still crying somewhat. "...Thanks..."

"No problem... Though, I can see why you were crying... It's the memory of the day I tried to help a girl in the playground from bullies... Only to get beat up and her caretaker to snap at me... I spent the rest of the day sobbing in my room after that." Naruto sighed, everyone now seeing a number of beads in his hands. "However, Bear, I have to apologize."

"A-Apologize?... Apologize for what?" The bear asked, shocked. "I mean, I should be thanking you! You saved my life!"

"However, the... Shadows? Right?" The bear nodded... Or at least a movement akin to it since it had no neck. "Were formed by my memories."

"They were formed by your memories? How could you tell?" Chie asked, a bit skeptic.

"This world seems to be affected my human emotion or something like that." They all looked at Naruto, looking the way they had came from. "Over there... I sensed a lot of anguish and despair coming from the door that was behind you all when I got you out of that situation... I usually cannot sense emotions unless in situation conditions, but this place seems to make those senses go into overdrive... I guess the Shadows are inhabitants here who attack while you are a peaceful inhabitant, huh?... What is this place, anyways?" Naruto asked, looking back at everyone.

"This place is what it is. It doesn't have a name. But, you're right. It's where I live." The bear explained.

"You... live here? With those monsters?" Yosuke asked, now standing and had stopped crying... Though his eyes were bloodshot.

"Yeah. However, if I was you guys, I'd hurry back to the other side. Someone's been throwing people in here. It's a big headache." The bear sighed.

"Huh? Throwing people in? What're you talking about?" Yosuke

"The announcer is this person you are referring to as one of the people being thrown in here?" Yosuke, Chie, and Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock. "When I think back to how the announcer ended up and how Sasuke and I ended up in Inaba... It makes sense... Though, you did not answer my question on the Shadows and yourself." Naruto said with a bit of annoyance.

"Wait, you're saying that… that announcer was in here?" Chie asked, but the bear went on a tantrum.

"I dunno who's doing it! I just want them to think before they go doing things like that!" The bear growled. "I've had it up to here with people barging in and driving the Shadows nutty! Especially after what Hero said!"

"Hero?" Naruto asked, confused before seeing Chie red in the face.

"Hey, what's your problem? What gives YOU the right to yell at us like that ?" Chie shouted back as her fear began to set in big time. "What ARE you? Where are we? What the heck's going on here?" The bear ran and hid behind Naruto.

"I already told you… A-Anyways, you should hurry back." The bear sighed weakly. "Even though Hero here defeated those Shadows, more might appear!"

"What it comes down to is, you want us to get outta here, right? Yosuke sighed. "Well, so do we! We just don't know how, dammit!"

"Urrrrgh! That's why I'm saying I'll let you out!" The bear roared in anger, still using Naruto as a meat shield.

"Like I keep saying, we don't know where the frickin' exit-Wait… What?" Yosuke asked in shock. The bear stamped his foot on the ground for three televisions to appear before the group."What the hell?" Yosuke gasped.

"Wh-Where did these TVs come from?" Chie shouted in shock as all four got in front of the television to look at them.

"Okay, now go, go, get outta here! I'm a busy bear!" The bear pushed them all towards the televisions.

"What's going on now? Whoa! Hey, what're you doing?" Chie gasped.

"S-Stop pushing!" Yosuke shouted.

"Wait! I need to return your goggles you dropped!" Naruto panicked, trying to give back the goggles as the bear pushed all four of them into the televisions.

"Keep them! Go go go!" They heard before they all went through the televisions and crash landed somewhere else. They all looked around and were shocked to see they were in the electronics apartment again.

"Damn bear..." Yosuke groaned as their eyes readjusted.

"Huh? Is this?" Chia asked, shocked.

"Did we make it back?" Yosuke asked, a bit confused. "Thank god!" Yosuke and Chie chimed in unison before hugging each other.

"It's great to be alive!" Chie chimed before realizing what they were doing and kneed Yosuke in the gut. "How dare you take advantage of the situation!" Yosuke laid out in pain.

'I expected her to get him in the nads again.' Sasuke thought before they all heard a bell tone and an announcement came up.

"Attention, shoppers. Our daily limited-time sale will now begin at the side dish area on the first floor. Why not try the delicious, fresh produce Junes picked for you this morning as your side dish for dinner tonight? All ages are invited to take advantage of this incredible bargain!" An overly cheerful female chimed.

"Crap, it's already that late?" Yosuke cursed, groaning as he got up.

"Looks like we were in there for quite a while…" Chie sighed.

"…I saw this poster back there..." Chie and Yosuke looked at Sasuke with shock who was looking at the poster near the televisions which was the same as in the room, but with the face intact.

"That's right!" Yosuke said. "They are the same!"

"What's up now?" Chie asked before realizing what Sasuke and Yosuke was talking about. "Hey, you're right, they're the same. I couldn't tell before without the face, but it was Hiiragi Misuze. She's been all over the news lately. Something about…her husband having an affair with that announcer lady who died the other day… Wait…"

"Hey, so does that mean? That weird room we saw… Could it be related to that Yamano lady's death?" Yosuke asked. "Now that I think about it… there was that creepy noose hanging from the ceiling…"

"It would explain the emotions of anguish and despair I felt." Naruto sighed as Yosuke and Chie looked at Naruto with fear. "She has been on the news because of that scandal... She was probably furious the singer found out and ruined-"

"Yaaargh, stop! No more! We gotta stop talking about this!" Yosuke covered his ears. "I'm gonna wipe what happened today from my brain. I don't think my poor heart can take anymore."

"I'm feeling a chill too." Chie shivered. "Let's go home. I wanna lie down and rest."

"Agh! My bladder!" Yosuke yelped, running away to find the closest restroom.

"Yeah… I passed out when I was in there last time… We all best go and rest…" Sasuke sighed before everyone said their goodbyes and went home. 'But... Unless you guys... Naruto and I aren't so lucky to be able to wipe it off from our minds... We have to go back in there for Naruto's memories!' Sasuke thought, already beginning to think of ways to get weapons and such for the battles he would have to face just to get Naruto's memories back. 'I am not going to let Naruto do this alone... It seems... he already has possibly been through a lot on his own... Even though, he is young like me...' Sasuke thought, though noticed Naruto walking off. "Where are you going, Naruto?"

"Side dish sale." Naruto adjusted his glasses in a matter of fact tone, the goggles he was wearing before hanging off his neck. "With how much I eat and Ryotaro's income, making every Yen count is a must."

"O-Okay..." Sasuke sighed, following the determined Naruto to the elevators to get to the first floor. '...He definately must have more memories than just his own... He already sounds like an old man... That would probably be why he's been a class clown... He doesn't want to think of how old he technically is.'

-Television-

Sasuke and Naruto entered the Dojima Residence to see Ryotaro and his daughter already sitting at the living room table and watching television. "Hey, welcome home." Ryotaro greeted as both walk into the living room and sat down. Sasuke's head was down as he sort of felt sluggish from the experience earlier even though Naruto seemed completely fine as he put the groceries he bought into the fridge.

"Uh-Hmm… Well, I doubt you'd know… But have you heard anything about a student named Konishi Saki?" Ryotaro asked as Naruto looked at him with coming from the kitchen, carrying a ramen cup for both Sasuke and him with seeing that Ryotaro and his daughter was eating the same.

"She was the one who found the announcer's body… The one who seems a prime target..." Naruto mumbled the last part to where it was barely audible and this made Ryotaro raise an eyebrow, but he just shook his head and let it go with thinking he meant something else.

"Yeah, it's true… To be honest… we got a call from her family. She's disappeared." Ryotaro sighed as Naruto sat down, putting the hot cups on the table to let them cook. "We've got people looking for her, but she hasn't been found yet…" Sasuke looked up with shock. "Work just keeps piling up." The news was on, but it was still going on about the murder case, but with the extra piece that the announcer was staying at the Amagi Inn.

'Isn't that the inn that girl Yukiko said her family runs?' Sasuke thought with a raised eyebrow. The news continued on with how Yukiko would be taking over the inn before going to the weather.

Sasuke sighed as the news continued. 'So, that lady was staying at the Amagi Inn which is run by Yukiko's family… And now Konishi Saki who discovered the body is missing…' Sasuke thought, his thoughts drifting to that room they ended up in. 'Was that room connected to the murder?'

"Is the ramen ready now?" Nanako asked, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts.

"Give it some more time." Ryotaro sighed before hearing a loud growl. "Huh?"

"I'm hungry…" Naruto sighed before Sasuke sneezed.

"Huh? Are you sick? You're probably still adjusting to the new environment. Nanako, could you get Sasuke some cold medicine?" Nanako nodded and got up. "Well, Naruto, I heard from Nanako you got quite a stomach. Lucky for me, the social services gave me some extra cash to take care of you both. Go and get some ramen to eat."

"…Thank you…" Naruto mumbled while getting up to get some more ramen cups to eat. Probably famished with how Sasuke seen how the boy ate.

"However, you should get to bed after you take it." Ryotaro frowned at Sasuke who just nodded. Sasuke took the medicine and head started for to their room. He noticed his diary on the table as he pulled out his futon.

'I better write this all down just in case.' Sasuke grabbed the diary and laid down on the futon to write.

**April 13-14, 2011**

**Dear Diary,**

**The last two days were quite... an adventure. On the school side, I have discovered that Yasogami High School is a safe haven for crazy teachers. That and this world is very complex with what is to be learned just to succeed in this world in school. If civilian school is the same back home, then I don't blame civilians trying to become ninja. Naruto made his debut today in high school... And I see now why he became a prankster. He is scary, having put King Moron in his place with just asking so many questions. However, I have discovered how he learns as it seems this "Youtube" websites put videos up ranging from just jokes to learning content. He learns better with seeing things done than reading them.**

**However, last night, Naruto and I watched the Midnight Channel Chie dared us to do... We witnessed someone, a girl, on the television, but then I touched the screen and my hand went through. We proved it was not a dream, as well as proving it to Chie and Yosuke, with a television in Junes... However, we all ended up inside the television... And the very place Naruto lost his memories in. We ended up finding a creepy room which had torn up posters of that enka signer and a noose and chair in it. We also discovered a bear like creature before finding monsters that went after us... Naruto, however, showed he is very skilled in fighting and we managed to defeat them with his help. However, it seems the monsters, Shadows, have taken up Naruto's lost memories as Naruto said. With what I seen... I now believe Naruto is actually an ANBU, possibly an experimental one who had the memories of not just his child self, but of other ANBU due to how skilled he was at using a street sign as a make-shift weapon... It made me realize... Maybe... That man... My brother... was not totally for fault of the massacre... Maybe Konoha had a part and this only makes it more of a tragedy as it also means the clan also might have had a part of it... Well, I need to make plans on how to combat those Shadows. I will get Naruto his memories back... And once I do, I will ask about what he had done... Maybe then... I can figure out exactly what happened with the Uchiha Massacre as even that seems like a mystery to me with all I have been through.**

Sasuke sighed, closing the book and put it off his futon before hitting his head to the pillow... Instantly falling asleep from the fatigue hitting him all at once.

"So, how was your first day at school?" Ryotaro asked, looking at Naruto who was waiting on his cups to finish cooking.

"Inefficient... I learned more using the computer than I ever done from traditional schooling." Ryotaro sweated at the blond. "I am awestruck that there is such technology, but it is not being used properly." Naruto sighed.

"I see... Well, technology has been changing so fast... Some people just haven't caught up, including schools." Ryotaro sighed, "Though, you like ramen?"

"Yes...I ate ramen a lot to make up for my big stomach... It seems I am slowly regaining my memories." Naruto said, waiting for his own cups to cook. "I eaten cup ramen so much, I learned to recognized when it cooked in the closed container." Naruto chuckled at himself while opening the first one he started as it was done.

"Oh, yeah... You lived on a stipend." Ryotaro said, nodding in understanding. "Though, you can't just eat that. What about vegetables?"

"Ick... I don't mind them cook... But, can't stand them raw." Naruto groaned, stopping for a second. "Why do you ask?" Naruto asked before finishing slurping his noodles up, memorizing Nanako as he ate on cup in several seconds.

"Whoa... Er..." Ryotaro snapped out of his shock with seeing Naruto already on his second bowl. "Well, I just want to know since it seems you became the cook in my house. I want to make sure Nanako doesn't eat junk food when she could possibly eat healthier."

"Dad..." Nanako whined, pouting at her father. "We ate take-out all the time!"

"Yeah... I know... But, that why I want to take advantage of Naruto here and get some healther, but still good tasting food..." Ryotaro chuckled at his daughter, not noticing the frown on Naruto's face. "What you say about it?"

"I don't mind. I am curious of some of the dishes I saw in Junes' grogery department and want to try making them." Naruto sighed, finishing his third cup and putting his chop sticks down. "Excuse me... But I am tired as well. I guess school took a bit out of me."

"I see. Well, good night." Ryotaro nodded as Naruto got up and also went up to the room. He noticed Sasuke already asleep.

"..." Naruto got his futon out. 'I know you will not give up helping me get my memories back.' Naruto thought, making up his bed with pillows underneath in the middle to look like a body. He pulled out a blond wig from his school bag and placed it so it looked like he was sleeping in the bed. 'I am already putting you in enough danger. So, I will just make sure you don't know about them.' Naruto turned off the lights, grabbing another bag he had stashed in the closet. He opened the window and went outside in the rain with a small, cheap umbrella he bought before. He closed the window and walked off the roof, landing in the unused land next to the Dojima's residence. 'Maybe I should get Ryotaro to let me garden here. That would save him a lot of money.' Naruto began to run through the rain.

It did not take him long to reach his destination which he found the first night he stayed at the Dojima residence: Yasogami's dump. "People of this world are quite wasteful." Naruto sighed with seeing there was still a lot of trash. "But, as the saying goes... 'A person's trash is another person's treasure.'... Or weapons for me." Naruto said, walking into the dump.

"You are here again?" A cheerful voice asked, though Naruto did not bother to look for where it came from. "There's an easier way to fight them."

"Sadly... I do not remember how." Naruto sighed, finding some pipes. "Plus, this feels natural... I guess I was a conservative type of person to begin with."

"Seriously? You must be very efficient to be able to pull that off. Fighting them without using that is quite hard." Naruto kept digging around, pulling out different things such as pipes, appliances, and other oddly household things including cleaning containers and such that seemed to still had some substances in them. "That or mentally insane."

"Hey... Pedo-Fairy..." Naruto sighed, sitting down where the trash concealed his location from the road.

"Hm? Pedo-Fairy?... Well, if that works for you, I don't mind you calling me that." The cheerful voice said from above Naruto, though Naruto simply focused onto using the materials he collected to build. "What is it you want?"

"Have you ever heard of the Midnight Channel?" Naruto asked, pulling wires out of an old mixer.

"Midnight Channel?... I have heard of it from humans talking, but don't know about it. I thought it was something humans watch on those boxes." Naruto looked up, noticing a thrown out television before him.

"You're right it is a rumor... However, at midnight, on a rainy night, if you stand before a television that is not on... Your soulmate will appear on the screen." Naruto said, checking the substances he had found along with pulling out some from his bag along with a mortar and pestle.

"Interesting. Though, my kind sort of don't need soulmates." The cheerful voice hummed, oddly comfortable. "I mean, I can help someone find their soulmate through a wish."

"True..." Naruto said, focusing on his building. "Then... What do you know of Shadows?"

"Shadows?" The voice asked, Naruto picking up some confusion in it. "Isn't shadows just the areas were light is not reaching? They don't really akin to anything except for those who become stronger in darkness for you."

"I see." Naruto sighed, completing a pipe bomb and putting it down to start on another. "Hey, did you look into that murder that has happened?"

"Hmm? Why do you ask?... You like to ask a lot of questions." The voice said, though not mad or annoyed at all.

"It seems to be something I do a lot... I think..." Naruto sighed, thankful for his umbrella as it kept the rain from soaking him. It was not heavy, but a slow steady rain as it was moving out of the area. Bits of fog was beginning to form as well. "I am curious of it... Due to finding something odd... I can't exactly explain it to you since I did not really 'see' it to prove it was connected to it. It is just... feelings..."

"I see. Regret, huh?" The voice happily said.

"Not my feelings... Someone else's." Naruto said, finishing another bomb. "Since you probably went to check out the body, I wanted your opinion."

"How did you know?" The voice asked, the sounds of something small jumping around in the trash.

"Curiosity is a habit of your kind. You can't keep your nose out of things." Naruto said, adjusting his glasses with a smirk. "That and another thing is what I know certain about your kind."

"Ah. Well, from what I seen, it is quite amazing." The voice hummed, as if excited. "The police have no clue what did it... However, it was like most of her soul was taken out of her body. I sensed hardly any traces of it left as a normally freshly slain body should have had."

"I see." Naruto pulled out his cell phone, noting the time to almost be midnight and put the phone away and put the bombs he had made into his bag. "So that is what happened... Though, it might not have been her soul... It could have been her mind."

"Her mind? Isn't it the same as the soul?" The voice asked, noticing Naruto picking up a thin pipe and holding it like a sword.

"Not exactly... They are closely linked together, though. Which if the mind was taken, I could see parts of the soul also being taken and making it so the soul no longer is stable in it." Naruto explained, walking over to the television near him. "You seen it before with them. Once the mind slips, it seems the soul easily can slip into ruin."

"Ah... That's an interesting theory. Though, to me it is a paradox with what we are talking about." The voice hummed.

"That is the downside of your kind. You don't look into the theories of other kinds. If you did... You would realize humans are ahead of their time with some things." Naruto said, spinning the pipe till his hand was midway as he assesses the television set. It was an old television and the screen was just big enough that he would be able to fit into it. "You see us as 'narrow-minded,' but your kind is even more so."

"Don't hate us for doing our job." The voice sighed tiredly for a moment as the rain was just a drizzle and fog had really began rolled in.

"Your kind does not deserve hate. That would be too much mercy." Naruto sighed, watching as the television suddenly turned on. He saw clearly a girl on the television, looking at something with confusion. He also recognzied who it was.

"What the?" The voice said, noticing the television as well. "The rumor is true?!"

"Not exactly... So my hunch was right... And that girl will die next like the announcer." Naruto reached his hand out and touched the screen for it to glow and let his hand through. "Hm!" Naruto jumped back, just in time before a bolt of lightning hit the television. However, instead of standing there in shock, he ran towards another television nearby in the trash. He changed direction as it, too, was destroyed by a bolt of lightning. He went for a third one, barely showing the image as it was nearly destroyed.

"Shit!" Naruto shouted as a lightning storm hit the area, hitting every television including the one before him... All except a small one he could not use to enter. Forcing him to watch the girl's face turned to terror and was engulfed by a black smoke, reeling in pain before the screen broke apart with Naruto threw the pipe right into the screen... A frown on his face while the glare of his glasses hid his eyes.

"What... was that?" The voice asked, though oddly not waving or even having a hit of fear. Just pure confusion.

"Heh..." Naruto adjusted his glasses, a grin forming on his face. He chuckled while looking at the broken television.

"I don't think the situation is 'funny' on human terms." The voice said, seemingly not unnerved by the face Naruto was chuckling instead of freaking out.

"Ha...Probably because I am no longer human." Naruto chuckled, watching the plumes of smoke came off some of the piles of trash from the televisions being lit by the lightning. "Though, this world is very interesting. It is not a pure system of what I thought."

"A pure system?... Are you referring-"

"Hai... I recommend you avoid trying to get involved in this, Pedo-Fairy..." Naruto chuckled, tapping his umbrella to his shoulder as he walked towards the exit of the dump. All of his footsteps seemingly phasing into the colors and directions like an old video before reversing and disappear, as if never there.

"Why would I not if it involves my job?" The voice said, though seeming of an echo now.

"Messing with gods and goddesses is very dangerous." Naruto sighed, turning back to the where the voice with a grin. "Breaking the laws is a bad thing. But... then again, it seems I already broken several... Which is probably my punishment with losing my memories... I am a lawbreaker... A demon..." Naruto chuckled, walking right in into the road as a police car was driving right at him... And then suddenly stopped along with the few raindrops still failing now appearing as round, floating sphere. It was all shifting in different directions like the footsteps before, but instead of disappearing, Naruto simply walked away as if nothing had happened at all.


	5. Ch 5: What the Hell Are You Doing!

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not own the series with the acronym PMMM. They belong to their owners and this is just fanfiction. I am referring to one series through the acronym to not spoil the rewrite and plot due to it becoming a tri-crossover. If you spoil it for others, shame on you. After this chapter, PMMM will be change to the title of the series often referred to the whole series.

* * *

Ch. 5 "What the hell are you doing?!"

Sasuke got dressed as usual with getting up in the morning. He gotten used to Naruto always being up before him now. However, what he was not used to was finding Ryotaro there when he walked down stairs.

"Ah, you're up. Well, I'm off." Ryotaro left the house, making Sasuke sweat. Sure, when his own father was alive, he was a very busy person… But, this Ryotaro person sure was a workaholic compared to the chief of the Konoha Military Police.

"Dad has to go do something. He got a call, so he left..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow before shaking his head.

'Must be some police business.' Sasuke looked at Nanako, noticing her worry. "It's probably something minor, so he should be fine." Nanako nodded before going to the table to sit... And Sasuke instantly shivered at the sight of Naruto.

"Good Morning, Sasuke-chan." Naruto happily chimed, putting down plates on the table while in his uniform and wearing the pink apron again. However, behind the smiling face which Nanako seemed to have only noticed with already happily eating, Sasuke could literally see a wave of anger and frustration coming off the blond... And possibly a pair of seemingly "imagine horns" that seem to float off his head.

"G-Good Morning, Naruto..." Sasuke sheepishly smiled, wondering exactly what was going on. "A-Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine. Why do you ask?" Naruto hummed, oddly only drinking some tea and eating toast for breakfast instead of the normal of a buffet breakfast. Vary abnormal to Sasuke who had come accustom to seeing the blond eating more than an Akimichi.

"It's just... You-En." Sasuke bit his lip to keep from screaming as agonizing pain came from his foot. It was like pure iron just hit it instead of what he thought and knew had to be the cause of the pain.

"Huh?" Nanako looked to notice Sasuke's discomfort. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes." Sasuke gasped as the object causing the pain was removed. 'Now I know how Yosuke felt when Chie did this to him.'

"He's probably just has a slightly sore stomach." Naruto innocently said like an angel. "He wasn't feeling good last night and the last bits are probably just wearing off now."

"Oh, okay." Nanako said before seeing the clock. "Ah! I need to get my homework together before I forget!" Nanako jumped up and ran to her room to gather her things for school.

"Naruto..." Sasuke groaned, taking a bit of his own food which was eggs with toast.

"Hai."

"...What the fucking hell is your feet made of?" Sasuke pondered as his foot was aching.

"The same as every human is made of." Naruto said, his angelic smile not hiding the floating oni horns atop his head at all.

"Bullshit." Sasuke gave Naruto a death glare, the blond's angelic mask not even breaking while Nanako came back to finish her breakfast.

"Huh?" Nanako cocked her head with seeing the two, confused as to why Sasuke was glaring at Naruto. Both finished their breakfast in silence before leaving Nanako to go to school.

"Naruto... You're in a sour mood today, huh?" Sasuke sighed as they both walked to school, though noticing Naruto's odd behavior was still showing.

"Hm? How is that, Sasuke-chan?" Naruto chuckled which sent shivers down Sasuke's spine.

"You... Nevermind..." Sasuke sighed. 'I will make sure to avoid being the one to cause the oni horns.' Sasuke thought, deciding the best course of action was to avoid Naruto when the imagined oni horns appeared atop his head. However, both stopped when they heard two female students gossiping.

"When I looked, I saw three police cars zooming by."

"You live by the police station, don't you? Did you hear anything?"

"I heard some yelling, but nothing more. Total disappointment."

"Geez, you need to pay more attention to stuff like that. How else are we supposed to get the juicy stories?" Sasuke and Naruto then heard sirens.

'Another incident?' Sasuke thought before noticing Naruto had clinched onto his umbrella hard.

-Snap- Sasuke paled with mouth a gag at he saw the bottom handle having broke where Naruto had gripped. He watched as blood dripped from Naruto's hand onto the ground.

"Say, Sasuke-chan, let's get to school since Ryotaro-chan would be not happy if we skipped class." Sasuke nodded madly, the aura of fury having seemingly become larger. He wanted to get someone between him and Naruto, fast, before he became like the umbrella.

-Television-

"...How... did this become so big?" Iruka said, slightly trembling while looking at the files on his desk.

"It seems many of them were believed to have run away or other various things. A couple were orphans or their parents did not care that they gone missing, hence never reported." Kakashi sighed, looking at the chalkboard which he was borrowing with meeting Iruka. All across the board was photos of various girls ranging from pre-teens to some even in their late teenage years. In the middle of the whole board were Iruka's two missing students along with all sorts of lines and notes with trying to figure out the connections. "The Hokage cancelled the schools in Konoha for a week to go through records and see if there are more than what we already found with your help."

"But... How did people never notice this? This many missing children..." Iruka looked the photo of a ten year old girl in the file he was looking at.

"This is a ninja village. People disappearing is not abnormal. There many things hidden just within Konoha that the Hokage knows he hasn't been able to root out like he did with his own student." Iruka shivered at the thought of that sannin. "Though, what is abnormal is the age range of the victims." Kakashi sighed, Iruka looking at him with confusion. "The age range is pretty specific. Just around the time puberty begins to kick in or during it."

"...Maybe a sicko has a thing for young girls." Iruka shivered at the thought before realizing something. "Wait... Why is it all girls till Naruto and Uchiha-san?" Iruka got up, looking the photos of his two students. "They are the only two males in this case."

"We can rule the Uchiha as a possible innocent bystander." Kakashi leaned against the desk, also looking at the board. "The target was Uzumaki. We know he has connections with the girls. From what the shrine showed, many girls saw him as a senpai and the girls seemingly regretted how they treated him. Also, from the words of the girl that disappeared right before us and the messages, it seems he tried helping the girls out."

"So, he is probably involved with simply trying to do the right thing?" Iruka asked, though saw it was possible. Naruto maybe a prankster and had a whole village against him, but he usually seemed to show the heart of someone who deeply cared about others no matter what.

"He's not that." Kakashi stood up completely and picked up the chalk. "If I had to guess, he maybe in the same boat as the girls. It might be just rare for whatever to be targeting the girls rarely goes for boys. From the sound of it, the girl that disappear and Naruto both were involved in some kind of fighting."

"Fighting? But, Naruto still an academy student. He even failed the exam to become Genin twice." Iruka said, confused. He tried to think of how Naruto could be a fighter, only to see him as a prankster who hasn't grown up yet. Even in spars he did not do well.

"Iruka, what does the Genin Exam test for?" Kakashi asked, narrowing his eye at the board.

"Just that the students can do a basic jutsu like the Bushin no Jutsu, basic knowledge, and their grade. Ranks for teams are decided by grades." Iruka said, having done this for a few years now.

"However, it does not test for battle smarts. That's what the second exam done by the Jōnin-sensei of the new Genin Team does." Iruka paled, remembering that and realizing if Naruto had a hard time with the first one... "From what that girl said, I might pass Naruto in a heartbeat if he became my student."

"Eh?" Iruka blinked, confused by the silver hair man.

"Party formation is a bit uncommon term to use, but it means the formation a team would make." Iruka nodded, now getting at what Kakashi was saying... Somewhat. "Many Genin are thrown out into the world without even knowing the basic teamwork structures for fighting among side allies. Those lessons are meant to be taught by the Jōnin who serves as their sensei. It is mainly due to the fact it's a lesson you can't exactly learn in the classroom and have to learn it on the battlefield.

"...Which Naruto has. And he could fake his abilities?" Iruka paled, realizing the possibility he was duped by a twelve year old.

"Yes and no... He might not be good at fighting with fellow classmates. That girl was far stronger than she looked." Kakashi rubbed his back which was still healing. He luckily did not break any bones, but had a nasty bruise left behind as a reminder to not even let his guard down to a child ever again. "That and since he been through this battle wise, he just hates going through the lectures and stuff... But, he could be one of those hands-on learners and tries to do good here and just suck at studies.

"True..." Iruka sighed, remembering seeing Naruto's head on his desk, suffering from brain overload. "But, what are they fighting? Are they being recruited by someone in Konoha?" Iruka looked at all the girls. "I mean, even though females are also important to Konoha's military might, why is it they are targeting mostly girls?"

"Mainly because they have the means to make a miracle or curse real." Both men looked to the doorway of the classroom to see a girl. She was wearing a dress shirt with a pair of shorts connected to suspenders. Her hair was cut short and had an ahoge coming off the top of her dark hair.

"Who are you?" Iruka asked, recognizing the girl to be a teenager and not a student at the ninja academy. "All the schools are closed right now, so you shouldn't be here." Iruka sighed, wondering if the girl was running an errand as he walked over to her.

"Please!" Iruka nearly jumped out of his skin when the girl bowed. "I know you're investigating Naruto-sensei's disappearance!" Kakashi narrowed his eyes while Iruka eyes widen at what the girl said. "My friends and I are also trying to figure out what happened to him! If we work together, then we can find him!" The girl looked up, tears in her eyes. "I know he has to be still alive! I can just feel it!"

"Eh?" Iruka asked, confused. "You can feel it?"

"Er... It's more of a hunch, but I know Naruto-sensei enough that he couldn't just up and disappear!" The girl panicked, realizing what she said. "Other girls have been disappearing the same way, with no trace as well, so we want to get to the bottom of this!" The girl said, her eyes filled with determination.

"... So, you know what is the connection between Uzumaki and the other girls?" Kakashi asked, giving her a stern look. However, Iruka blinked, looking behind the girl in confusion.

"Hai! Because we-"

"Watch out!" The girl yelped when Iruka grabbed her and moved her just in time. A blade sunk right into the wood as the academy teacher who was wielding it let it go and moved as if drunk. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"...Umino-san... I don't think they will listen to you..." Kakashi sighed, noticing other teachers also coming into the room with similar movements. He noticed their eyes seemingly glazed over.

"They are being controlled?" Iruka asked, dodging another attack with the girl in his arm. However, he noticed the girl looking at the teacher's neck.

"They have a kiss!" The girl shouted while Kakashi narrowed his eyes with seeing what looked to be a bruise on some of the teacher's necks. "We didn't sense one when we arrived here!"

"Iruka, head for the doorway." Kakashi sighed, already thinking of how to possible disable their attackers. "This is going to be a long day if everyone in the academy is being control."

-Television-

"Hey… Did you see it yesterday?" A girl asked another in front of her as everyone was in the gym, waiting for the school assembly to start. It was suddenly announced after lunch, which confused Sasuke since there hasn't been once since he started a few days ago. However, he was thankful Yosuke was between him and Naruto, seeing the horns still floating above Naruto's head even though he was masking his fury like pro.

"Of course not… What, is that rumor for real?"

"I dunno, but it seems like a lot of people have seen it."

Chie sighed, putting her cell phone up. "Yukiko said she'd be here after lunch…" Chie turned around to face Sasuke, Naruto, and Yosuke who were standing in the same line. "I wonder why they're holding a school assembly all of a sudden… Hey, what's wrong, Yosuke? " Sasuke looked over to expect Yosuke, being a masochist, to sense Naruto's anger. However, he noticed Yosuke actually seemingly worried and nervous.

"…Oh, it's nothing…" Yosuke looked down as the history teacher known as began speaking, checking his phone again.

"Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly I about to begin. First, the principal has something to say."Sofue got out of the way and let the old man that was the principal take the stand.

"I… regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you. One of our third-year students, Ms. Konishi Saki of Class 3 has passed away." The principal sighed, Sasuke noticed the shocked look on Yosuke's face.

"Passed away?" Chie gasped.

"…" Yosuke painfully grunted.

"… Knew it…" Naruto said in a whisper, but Yosuke, Chie, and Sasuke heard it and looked at Naruto with shock.

'What the?!' Sasuke thought before realizing Naruto's sour mood. 'He knows what happened to her?!'

"Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning. The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police. If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you as students of this school to provide only the facts." Talk began to fill the room about the death. "All right, please quiet down. I have been assured by the faculty that there's been no evidence that bullying was involved in the incident. So mind what you say, not only to the police but to anyone who asks…"

"Found dead? How could this happen?" Chie was pale on shock as Sasuke noticed the look on Yosuke's face as the principal's addressed continued on. He was looking at Naruto with a mix of emotions, all the while the blond seemingly had a smile on his face, hiding his own frustration. Once the assembly was over, everyone headed back to their classes. Chie and Sasuke stopped when hearing too students talking in the hall.

"She died the same way as that announcer, right? That's so creepy."

"Well, last time, it was from an antenna, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole. It's gotta be a serial murder case."

"Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison."

"Unknown? C'mon, this isn't some sci-fi drama."

"Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl that looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie. They said she totally looked like she was in pain. Isn't that scary?"

"Haha, sounds like someone had a nightmare. The media's been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain." The two gossiping girls left, but Chie and Sasuke stay there standing.

"Sheesh, it's easy to toss around theories if you're not personally involved." Chie sighed before panicking with seeing Yosuke and Naruto as they walked around the corner to get their bags as school was cancelled for the rest of the day due to the incident. "Yosuke?! What are you doing!?" Chie hissed, trying not to shout with seeing Yosuke had Naruto held up by the collar of his orange coat and pinned again the wall. He was in one of the side hallways were the light did not reach all the way and hide them somewhat.

"You know what happened to Saki-senpai!?" Yosuke growled furiously at the blond he had pinned up. "What the hell happened to her?! I saw her on the Midnight Channel last night! She was writhing in pain!" Chie covered her mouth, seeing the tears in Yosuke's eyes. Sasuke, however, was more worried the masochist was about to be murdered by Naruto as the boy's head dropped and his glasses blocking his eyes with glare.

"Heh..." Chie and Sasuke shivered as the air seemingly dropped a few degrees when a large grin came onto Naruto's face. "I think you already figured it out as well." Yosuke looked at Naruto with shock with Naruto looking him straight in the eyes. "Someone throwing people into the television, right into that world. Just like Bear-chan said. Worse, the bastard got some supernatural protection."

"You mean... People who show up on the Midnight Channel...die?" Chie asked, her blood running cold.

"Did you throw her into the television?!" Yosuke growled, ready to beat the twelve year old.

"Opposite. I tried to go into it, realizing the connection after what you told me and realizing the images we saw the night before could possibly be TV girl." Naruto chuckled, "I was blocked through and was forced to watch like you as she died... Say, Headphone-chan, does Junes have lightning rods on the roof?"

"What does that have to do with this!?" Yosuke punched the blond... Or at least attempted to only to find himself hit air instead, barely stopping from hitting the wall. "N-Nani?" He jumped with a hand on his shoulder, turning to find it was Naruto and Chie and Sasuke looking at them both in shock.

"H-How he do that?" Chie asked with shock as Sasuke and Chie witnessed Naruto seemingly just appearing behind Yosuke without any movement.

"There's a lot of things in the world don't and sometimes should not know about." Naruto said with smirk while adjusting his glasses. "However, with what I can tell... You are planning to run to Junes now, aren't you."

"H-How did you know that?" Yosuke asked, confused. "H-How the fuck you just-"

"Teleport?" Naruto asked, now creeping out the three. "It wasn't teleportation... Just a trick I can do. It just took me a few days to realize what it was as I thought I still suffering mentally." Naruto chuckled while Sasuke's eyes widen at realizing what Naruto meant. "However, for your first, it seems to be a little ability I have. Ever heard of the red spring of fate?"

"Yeah? What does this have to do with this?" Yosuke growled, still angry at the blond.

"Well, it's a bit of a half-truth. I can sort of see what many would call 'strings of fate,' but in reality... It is more the strings of choices. The possible paths one can choose. Right now, all of your current ones show me you going into that other world through the television in Junes." Naruto said, now showing his own fury. "However, I can't see into the future as it sounds like. I simply can see all the possible paths, not which one you choose unless it leads to one spot."

"You're a psychic?" Chie asked, though then realizing what Naruto said. "Oh, hell no! You are not going to Junes! We almost died yesterday!"

"I am not a psychic... What I exactly am now I don't exactly know." Naruto sighed, "However, Jersey-chan, there's no way you're going to convince him. He's dead set on it with what I sense."

"What?!" Chie gasped, "And my name is Chie! Not Jersey!" Chie growled, now also furious at the blond.

"So, what if I am going into that other world?!" Yosuke growled, everyone focused back on him. "I gotta know what happened to Saki-sempai! That room we saw yesterday had to involved that announcer, which people are saying Saki-senpai was found the same way the announcer was found head! It has to be connected! I wanna know what I happened to Saki-sempai..." Yosuke looked down, his eyes filled with pain.

"Of course. Which is why I am going with you." Chie, Yosuke, and Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock. "I could care less if I get my memories back if it means putting other people in harm's way. However, one of my pet peeves, I think for sure, is bastards who thing they can stop me from helping someone in need. Though, it seems I will have to play by their rules since I know for sure this is not going to be the last murder."

"Play by their rules?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Wait, you mean you're going to be facing the killer head-on?!" Chie asked, now really worried.

"Sadly, no. What we need to first figure out is what the connection of the TV world and how the two victims died. Finding where Saki was in that world and seeing the crime scene can give us those clues, though what killed her is probably long gone. We will need a means-" Naruto, Sasuke, and Chie watched as Yosuke ran off.

"Yosuke!" Chie shouted, "Oh no..." Chie whined, feeling hopeless.

"...To collect evidence... Wow... And I thought I was impatient." Naruto sighed, catching the attention of Chie and Sasuke. "You're probably going to say, let's just let the police handle it. Problem is this isn't a normal case. If we just tell the adults 'There's a world in the TV and the murderer is using that to kill people.' They would send officers to put us in the loony bin. However, if we had a means to prove it-"

"Then they have to believe us!"Chie said, now realizing what Naruto was getting at. "I can understand Yosuke a little...B-but, it's dangerous! We don't know if we will get out like last time!"

"True. However, I have a sinking suspicious if we leave it is as of now, things might get worse." Sasuke and Chie looked at Naruto, who was frowning and looking at the rainy sky outside. "Several things don't add up here and I know it is being done outside what normal people understanding... But, I have a feeling it's connected to the Midnight Channel and that other world. That's why I asked Headphone-chan about Junes. It seems in order to play by the rules of whatever chessmaster is behind this, I can't investigate this alone."

"But-"

"If you can't take actions because of the risks, then you're a coward." Chie flinched at what Naruto said.

"Naruto!" Sasuke growled, ready to speak his mind.

"If you take actions without considering the risks, you're an idiot." Both looked at the blond with shock. "You'll have to face risks during life, which is why understanding those risks is essential to life, even if those risks are not a danger to yourself. I been peeved this whole morning with my ability showing me Sasuke and Yosuke being the idiots and going into that world and not thinking of what to do." Both Chie and Sasuke recoiled, though Sasuke paling at the blond said of him. "However, I just this is one of those situations where one has to jump right in with the idiots."

"N-Naruto." Sasuke growled, his eyebrow twitched with being called an idiot. "Are you sure about this? About Yosuke and I going into that other world?" Sasuke asked, though hiding he did want to go back there, but more for the blond's memories than solving a murder.

"Hai, though your reason was more to find my memories, right." Sasuke flinched at getting caught with what he was thinking. "However, let's catch up with Headphone-chan before he gets hurt doing something really stupid." Both Chie and Sasuke nodded at the blond, though Sasuke was glad to see what he has officially called the "Horns of Doom" no longer floating above Naruto's head.

-Television-

After running to Junes, Sasuke, Chie, and Naruto found Yusuke standing in the electronics department in front of a large television holding a coil or rope that was tied around his waist in one hand and a golf club in the other. "You guys came!" Yosuke chimed while Sasuke, Naruto, and Chie ran up, finding him in front of the televisions with a rope around his waist. In one of his hands was the rope and in the other hand was a golf club.

"We came to stop you, idiot!" Chie shouted, holding back from hitting Yusuke. "C'mon… You really shouldn't do this. It's too dangerous."

"Jersey-chan, I guess you also have an inability to give up." Naruto sighed, getting a death glare from the girl.

"I know." Yosuke sighed, looking at Chie. "But, we were able to come back once, right? If we go in from the same location, maybe we'll meet that bear again."

"'Maybe' isn't good enough!" Chie roared, concerned as she remember what they saw yesterday. "I don't care what glass boy here says! We nearly died yesterday and I don't want to see someone else I know die!"

"Look, I can't just act like everyone else and pretend this has nothing to do with me." Yosuke seriously looked at the others.

"That's true, but…" Chie let out a sigh.

"What about you two? Could you two just walk away?" Yosuke asked, serious.

"Headphone-chan, I already confirmed your answer back at the school. I going in with you." Naruto sighed while a vain popped on Yosuke's forehead. "Though, please don't do something stupid."

"You-"

"No, but I think Naruto and I know the dangers there and Chie and you could get hurt very badly." Sasuke answered, trying to keep Yosuke from hurting himself. Mainly with trying to attack Naruto again. "Naruto and I have training, so we can at least protect you, Yosuke-san."

"Yeah, it'll be just you, Gatling Gun and me." Yosuke pointed out before holding out the rope to Chie. "Don't worry. I'm not going in without a plan. Chie, I'm leaving you in charge of this. We'll go in with this tied to us, so I want you to hold on to this and wait here."

"Wh-What? Then, is this a lifeline? C'mon, wait a sec!" Chie panicked, seeing Sasuke tied the rope around his waists. "Uzumaki! Stop them!"

"You already know my answer." Naruto sighed while frowning. "I'm going as well." Chie slumped in defeat with seeing all three were determined to go.

"Here, Sasuke-san This is for you." Yosuke handed Sasuke the gold club. "I thought it might be better than going in empty-handed. Oh... Sorry, I don't have one for you, Gatling Gun." Yosuke smirked at Naruto only for the three to sweat at Naruto as he took off jacket and took off a bag he was hiding.

"…Ready for battle…" Naruto said in monotone.

"…Uh...What's in the bag?…" Yosuke let out a nervous sigh.

"Various weapons, including my speciality." All three paled, though Sasuke was sweating.

"Um... By 'speciality,' you mean-"

"Yep. I have no clue what we may face, so I got fire power." Now the two high schoolers were sweating as well.

"O-Okay... Let's go. There' no use wasting any more time." Yosuke turned to Chie, trying to remove what he just heard from his brain. "Chie, whatever you do, don't let go of the rope!" Yosuke nodded at Sasuke and Naruto before they went into the television.

"Hey! Wai-" The group of three hear as the saw the strange black and white warp as they went through the television. Yosuke and Sasuke landed on each other while Naruto simply landed on his feet

"Dammit… Not again…" Sasuke groaned, getting up before frowning to see he had landed right on Yosuke. "Er... You okay?"

"Owww…" Yosuke got up once Sasuke was off him and looked around. "Is this? Look, this is the same place as last time! So they are connected from place to place!" Yosuke chimed happily.

"Y-You guys… Why'd you come back?" Sasuke and Yosuke were shock seeing the same bear appear from before come up to them. He then glared at them. "I get it! You're the ones behind this!"

"You're that thing from last time!" Yousuke shouted before glaring back at the bear. "Wait, what the hell did you just say?" The bear turned around with its paw behind its back.

"Lately, I can tell someone's been throwing people in here. It's making this world more and more messed up…" The bear turned back to Sasuke, Naruto, and Yosuke. "This is the second time you guys came here. And I don't think anyone forced you in. That means you're the most suspicious! You guys must be the ones throwing the people in here, raaaawr!" The bear angrily roared.

"What're you talking about, 'throwing people in?'" Yosuke shouted, "If someone was thrown in here and they couldn't get out, they might die! Who would do such a-" Yosuke, Sasuke, and the bear shuttered as the air go cold.

"Bear-chan, Headphone-chan... Will you stop fighting?" Naruto asked in an innocent voice, though all of them could sense the blond's killer intent.

"Eeeen!" Sasuke sweated as Yosuke and the bear hide behind him. "A-Are you-

"No. I am not the culprit." Naruto sighed, taming his anger for a bit. "However, Bear-chan, I think you have come to a misunderstanding. You want whoever is throwing people into the television to stop. Well, thing is, people who have been thrown into here have ended up dead."

"What?! Really?!" The bear gasped, making Yosuke and Sasuke ponder about it. "B-But why are you here if you are not the one doing it?!"

"Because we, too, want to get to the bottom of this as well as the person who been screwing up your peace is the murderer of those two people." Naruto explained, though frowning. "However, I am curious of you since you are our current lead. My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

"What the hell are you doing?! This is no time for introductions!" The bear trembled as Yosuke shouted at the blond.

"It is proper manners to introduce yourself, correct, Headphone-chan?"

"My name isn't Headphone-chan, it's Yosuke!" Yosuke growled while the bear also became mad.

"What're you guys mumbling about?" The bear shouted in anger. "Why'd you come here, anyways? It's a one-way door! You can't get out once you're in! Remember? How I had to let you guys out?"

"Yeah, whatever." Yosuke snorted at the bear confidently. "We don't need your help this time! See, this time we have a lifeli-." Yosuke and Sasuke looked at the rope on Yosuke only to realize it had been cut off. "Whaaaaaaaa?" Yosuke glared back at the bear. "H-Hey! You better let us out once we're done investigating here!"

"Grrrrr! I'm the one want to investigate!" The bear stomped in a fit of anger. "I've lived here for a long time. But it's never been noisy like this till now. Do you have proof? Prove to me you're not throwing people in here!"

"Shut up." Sasuke snorted, quite annoyed, now seeing why Naruto snapped earlier. However, it seemed the two forgot said snapped with focused on each other.

"See! So it is you guys!" The bear shouted before finding himself frozen with Naruto's own glaze frightening him.

"You want proof... Alright... Tell me, did you smell my scent here in this world last night?" Sasuke and Yosuke looked at Naruto with shock as the bear went over to him and sniffed him.

"Oh! You're right! I did smell you... But it was gone in an instant and nowhere near where that girl appeared!" The bear said, recognizing the smell.

"I was about to jump into this world when something stopped me." Naruto sighed, "Though, I am just thankful I pulled back my hand in time before what destroyed the television hit me as well. However, tell me, is there a certain condition here when it rains or fog appears in Inaba?"

"Fog?" Yosuke asked, confused by Naruto's comment. Sasuke always raised an eyebrow, wondering why weather would be a factor.

"Rain or fog?" The bear asked in confusion. "Well... I know that if it's foggy on your side, the fog lifts here. It's really dangerous when the fog lifts. That's when the Shadows get violent." The bear then smiled. "Aaaah…. I get it…."

"Huh? If you get it, then explain it to us, dammit!" Yosuke was mad and getting impatient. "If it's foggy on our side, it isn't in here…? Shadows get violent…?"

"That's why I said to hurry back!" The bear pointed out. "It's dangerous when that happens! Okay, no more questions. I know you two guys did it! You better stop right now!" The bear growled, pointing at Sasuke and Yosuke.

"I told you and told you, we're not the ones doing it!" Yosuke shouted, never noticing Sasuke's forehead had veins popping up. "I've about had it with you… Why the hell won't you listen to what we're saying?"

"I-I'm just saying… you might be the culprits... I'm just making sure…" The bear said nervously. "The only one who proved himself not the culprit was the scary hero."

"What?... Man, this bear's driving me nuts…" Yosuke sighed tiredly.

'Both of you are driving me nuts.' Sasuke thought in anger. 'Though, where did Naruto go to try and get into a television? I know the ones at Dojima's are too small.'

"What is this place, anyways? It looks like a TV studio… Is something being filmed here?" Yosuke changed the subject, feeling the killer intent radiating from Sasuke instead of Naruto before realizing something. "H-Hey, don't tell me… Is that weird show being filmed here?"

"Weird show? Filmed? What does that mean? The bear asked, cocking it's head.

"Uh… I'm asking if someone's been filming the people that get thrown in here" Yosuke sighed.

"….?" The bear coked his head again before sighing, "I don't get it… This world has always been like this. No one has ever done that filming thing here."

"Always been like this?" Sasuke repeated, confused. 'Didn't something drag Naruto and me in here?'

"Only me and Shadows are here! I told you before!" The bear said with a frown.

"Ugh! We don't know what these Shadow things are! Or what you are either, for that matter!" Yosuke snapped at the bear. Sasuke, however, remembered yesterday the bear said the monsters that attacked them were Shadows. "You keep telling us to prove our innocence, but you're the most suspicious thing here! Maybe you're the real culprit! And what's with that stupid costume? I'd say it's time you showed your face!" Yosuke grabbed the head of the bear and pulled it off only for Sasuke and Yosuke to become wide eyed when they saw nothing inside. "Whoa!" Yosuke threw the head away while moving backwards. "Wh-What the hell are you?... It's empty inside…"

"Are you looking for this?" Sasuke and Yosuke jumped, seeing Naruto holding the bears head which the bear took it and threw it in the air for it to land right back on its head.

"Thank you…" The bear looked at Naruto before looking back at the other two. "Me…? The culprit…? I wouldn't do such a thing… I just live here…I just want to live here peacefully…" Yosuke frowned, feeling a little guilty now. "Okay. I'll believe that you guys aren't the culprits. But I want you to find the real guy who did all this. You have to stop him. Promise me, or else I'm not gonna let you guys outta here." The bear chimed.

"Y-You little!"

"This can't keep going on! My home here will be a complete mess! And then… and then… I… Waaaaah!" The bear began crying.

"Wh-What're you crying for all of a sudden?" Yosuke asked while Naruto rubbed the bear's back to comfort it. "Geez, this thing's really weirding me out."

"Wouldn't you also be a wreck if something ripped apart the life you knew?" Yosuke and Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock. "I think that's what he is trying to say. He wants things to just return back to normal... Well, in this world and his terms." Naruto sighed in an understanding that confused both boys.

"…" Sasuke brooded. He did remember being pulled into the television before, but this was different. Someone is pushing people into the television and those people end up dying… And this bear could prove to be useful as he wants to leave in peace, but can't because of the crimes going on.

Yosuke let out a tired sigh. "Hey, what should we do?" Yosuke asked Sasuke, not wanting Naruto to let his mouth off again.

'"It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you."' Sasuke's eyes widen, remembering what Igor said. 'That's right! His fortune…. Could this be the mystery Naruto and I are bound to as a contract?... And could it help Naruto and I find Naruto's memories?' Sasuke thought before looking back at the bear who managed to stop sobbing.

"You're the only ones I can ask. Will you promise me…?" The bear asked in a sad tone.

"…We got no choice, so I promise to help you." Sasuke said with a sigh. 'If I can help Naruto this way that would be great… That and we are stuck in here if this thing doesn't help us out.'

"Th-Thank you!" The bear chimed happily at Sasuke.

"Damn bear… Practically holding a gun to our heads…" Yosuke grumbled, "But… It's true that we came here to figure things out. So far, we're completely in the dark. Look for the culprit, huh?... Bring it on! You got my word, too! Might as well introduce ourselves. I'm Hanamura Yosuke, and this is my buddy, Uchiha Sasuke." Yosuke pointed at Sasuke. "And the bastard behind you as he said before is Uzumaki Naruto, though you can call him Gatling Gun." The bear looked behind him to see Naruto raised his hand in a form of saying hi. "You got a name?"

"…Tedde." The bear said happily.

"Heh…" Yosuke tiredly chuckled. "Figures…. But how are we supposed to find the culprit in the first place?"

"I dunno… Oh! But I know where the last person came in." Teddie said happily.

"The last person…? You mean Saki-senpai?" Yosuke said in shock before realizing something. "Wait, where's my phone?"

"I mean the person who came in and disappeared last time. I dunno the name." Teddie let out an annoyed grunt before seeing Naruto before it. "Woah! You're fast." Teddie said in shock before looking at the image Naruto had pulled up on Yosuke's phone.

"This is the girl Headphone-chan is talking about." Naruto said while letting the bear get a good look.

"Dude! Seriously! Don't take other people's phones without permission!" Yosuke growled before finding his phone right in his hand again, Naruto still standing before the bear. "And stop doing that! You're weirding me out more than the bear!"

"Sorry... I don't have full control of it. It's sort of on auto-pilot to some extent." Naruto said, though smirking at Yosuke who was not too happy at the blond at all.

"Oh! I seen her!" All three looked at the bear. "She was the one I saw last night! I'll take you there. You might find clues. Oh, one thing first. You two should put these on." The bear handed Yosuke and Sasuke a pair of glasses. Sasuke's was dark gray and Yosuke's was orange. Naruto simply pulled the goggles he still had up from his neck and over his eyes.

"What're these glasses for?" Yosuke asked as Sasuke and he put them on. Sasuke and Yosuke recoiled when they found their vision to be much clear. "Whoa! The difference is like night and day… With these on, it's like the fog doesn't exist."

"They'll help you walk through the fog…. Well, I've been here for a long time. So you can rely on me!" Teddi chimed with confidence. "Uh… But I can only show you where the place is. You guys will have to defend yourselves." Teddie sheepishly explained.

"What happened to relying on you? Th-There better not be any monsters like yesterday! You understand? We brought weapons, but I mean… They're more for show!"

"Mine ain't." Yosuke and Sasuke sweated, wondering exactly what the blond had in his bag.

"W-Well, we just got here! If it's so dangerous, why don't you do something instead of relying on us?" Yosuke angrily said, getting tired of the bear already.

"Uh uh. No way. I've got no muscles." The bear happily declined. "Oh! Oh! I'll give you guys moral support from a safe distance! How's that sound?" Teddie hummed only to blink as Sasuke walked up to him and punched him, making the bear flop backwards onto his back easily.

"N-Noooo!" Teddie cried, trying to get off his back. However, he was not going anywhere.

"I-Is this thing for real?" Yosuke groaned, wondering how lame something had to be to beat being lamer than the bear in front of him. "Ugh, this is so lame… We swore to find the culprit, and this is all the backup we get?"

"… Oh yeah. Can I ask you something?" Teddie stopped struggling. "Who's this Saki-senpai person? Someone you know?" Yosuke instantly frowned, looking down.

"… That doesn't matter right now…" Yosuke looked at Sasuke. "Anyways, at least now we know Senpai might been thrown in here. Maybe we can find more information, too. Let's get moving, Sasuke." Sasuke nodded while they turned around and walked away.

"W-Waaaait!" Teddie cried out, only to blink when Naruto pushed him back up and they both ran to catch up with the other two.

-Television-

"What is this place…? It looks just like the shopping district…" Yosuke said in confusion as they looked around at the place Teddie took them. The group found themselves in a bizarre version of the shopping district of Inaba, but the sky was red with black swirls in it while everything seems to be under a strange, murky yellow light. "What's going on here?"

"Some weird places have appeared here recently." Teddie said in a depressing voice. "Things are getting so tangled, I dunno what to do.." The group of three turned to face the bear.

"I see... So the mechanics are similar." Naruto mumbled, though Sasuke and Yosuke were focused on another detail.

"Uh… By the way, why are you standing so far from us? You better not be planning to high-tail it if something does come up." Yosuke growled with a suspicious glare on the bear.

"Of course not!" Teddie nervously chimed. "I mean. Uh, I can't stand too close, you know. I'd get in your way." Teddie blushed and looked away innocently.

Yosuke shook his head before realizing something. "Man, they really went all out on this… But, out of all the places in town, why'd they replicate this one?"

"How should I know?" Teddie shrugged at the boys. "This is reality for the one who's here."

"As usual, nothing you say makes any sense…" Yosuke sighed.

"No. It does make sense." Sasuke and Yosuke looked at Naruto. "If that girl did end up here, wouldn't the reality made in this spot reflect the reality she knows?"

"What?...Wait… If this is our shopping district, we're not far from Saki-senpai's-" Yosuke's eyes widen as he realized what Naruto meant and turned and ran down the road. They found the liquor store and found where the door should be to have a weird black and red portal. "I knew it! This is the liquor store that Senpai's parents run. Does this mean… Senpai disappeared here? What could've happened?" Yosuke walked forward only to be grabbed by Naruto.

"W-Wait a second! Th-They're here!" Teddie shouted in a panic.

"What?" Yosuke asked before being pulled back by Naruto. "What the hell?!"

"…Shadows. I had a feeling they were going to attack!" Teddie said as strange blue faces came out of the portal and dropped out with purple slime connected to them. The slime masks quickly turned into sphere with large mouths on them. Sasuke stepped back in fear before his eyes widen as a ringing sound came to his ears.

**I am thou… Thou am I… The time has come… Open thy eyes and call forth what is within!**

"Huh?" Sasuke opened his eyes and was shocked to see a blue card in his hand that glowed when he turned it over. However he smirked at it. "Per… so…na!" Sasuke shouted, crushing the now flaming card in his hand and screamed for blue flames to appear behind him and to form a large man like being in a black cloak like jacket with a metal mask and holding a blade with a long hilt.

"Sasuke! Hero! Those Shadows have a weakness! Find it and you can knock them down for an easy knock out!" Teddie shouted at Sasuke while running over to Yosuke and out of the way.

"Izanagi! Zio!" Sasuke shouted for a blot of light to come down on one of the sphere and knock it back before Sasuke swung his golf club which the man mimicked and slashed the ball in half, making it disappear into mush.

"Oh, man!" Yosuke shouted as the other went after him only for it to be smashed just above its mouth from a kick by Naruto. Naruto then grabbed the monster's tongue and swung it into the ground before using his momentum to get back into the air.

"Spiral Kick," Naruto calmly said before smashing down his feet on the creature while spinning, causing cracking in the cement below it as it burst into black liquid. Sasuke then turned around and looked at the creature he had called forth for it to turn into a gold card and float down to him, absorbing into his body.

"…Izanagi…" Sasuke said, wondering why the name sounded familiar.

"Whoa… Wh-What was that?" Yosuke shouted as Naruto helped him up since he ended up hitting the ground on his rear end. "Naruto was super human back there? Did I hear you say 'Persona?' What was it-I mean, what did you do? Hey, you think I can do it too?" Sasuke sweated from the attention while Teddie walked up.

"Calm down, Yosuke. You're troubling Sensei!" Teddie chimed happily, giving Sasuke a look that reminded the Uchiha of his fan girls.

"S-Sensei?" Yosuke stuttered in shock.

"Gosh almighty! You're amazing, Sensei! I am one impressed bear!" Teddie chimed at Sasuke. "I can't believe you were hiding such an amazing power! No wonder the Shadows were scared of you!" Teddie then gasped. "Are you the one who's able to bring people into this world?" Sasuke nodded, though wondering why Naruto was not getting as much attention as him. He just killed one of those "Shadows" bare-handed… Or feet as he finished it off with a kick. Though, Yosuke saw what happened yesterday as well. "Hah! That's what I thought! This is really something." Teddie turned to Yosuke. "Don't you think so, Yosuke?"

Yosuke pushed Teddie only for him to go down and rebound right back up. "Dude, you call him Sensei and then don't show me any respect?"

"Sorry…" Teddie looked down.

"W-Well, your support wasn't bad, though. I gotta give you some credit for that."

"Huh? R-Really? Hee hee." Teddie blushed embarrassedly.

"All right, you two keep it up, and I think we'll be find from here on out." Yosuke smiled at Sasuke and Naruto. "Now, let's get back to the investigation!" Yosuke turned back to the portal before frowning. "Man… I wonder what could have happened to Senpai here." Yosuke sighed before they all suddenly heard echoes around them and they turned around, making sure to form a circle so that one had at least covered one direction.

_"Ugh… I wish Junes would go under…"_ An unknown woman voice said in annoyance.

_"It's all because of that store!"_ Another voice sneered.

"Wh-What the?" Yosuke said, confused.

_"Oh, I heard that Konishi-san's daughter is working there."_

_"Oh my… How could she, with her family's business suffering like it is?"_

_"I heard their sales have gone downhill because of Junes."_

"S-Stop it…" Yosuke mumbled.

_"That poor father… to have his own daughter working for the enemy."_

_"What a troublesome child."_

"Hey… Hey, Ted!" Yosuke said with a wavering voice. "You said that this place is reality for those that are here, right? So… does that mean this was Senpai's reality when she wandered in here?"

Teddie sweated some. "I… only know about what's over here."

Yosuke turned back to the portal. "Fine… Whatever's going on here… We'll find out ourselves!" Yosuke shouted, going through the portal for the others to follow. The inside was of a dark inside of a liquor store though above could be seen metal bars seen behind sets. They suddenly heard the echoes again. "Dammit, not again…" Yosuke sighed.

_"Saki, how many times do I have to tell you?"_ A middle age male voice shouted.

"I-Is this… Senpai's dad?" Yosuke asked, perplexed as to what is going on.

_"You know what the neighbors say about you, right? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You're the eldest daughter of a family who's owned this store for generations! Is it the money? Or did you meet some guy there? Just tell me why you have to work THERE, of all places!"_

"I… I can't believe this…" Yosuke said in confusion. "She seemed like she had fun at work… She never said anything like this to me…" Yosuke then became furious. "You're telling me THIS was how Senpai really saw things?" Yosuke then noticed the table nearby and ran up to it too see a bunch of photos. "These photos… Hey… Is this?" He picked up one of the photos "It's the photo we took the other day with the other part-timers at Junes… Wh-Why's it cut up like this?" Yosuke asked, confused while Naruto and Sasuke saw the photo. It was a scrap of show showing Konishi Saki smiling with Yosuke standing next to her.

_"I… never had the chance to say it…"_ All four of them jumped when they heard Saki's voice.

"Is that… Sempai's voice?" Yosuke asked in shock.

_"I always wanted to tell Hana-chan…"_

"Huh? Me?" Yosuke asked in confusion.

_"…that he was a real pain in the ass."_ Saki said in an annoyed tone. _"I was nice to him just because he was the store manager's son, that's all… But he takes it completely the wrong way and gets all enthusiastic… What a dip."_

"P-Pain in the ass?" Yosuke asked, his eyes widen in shock.

_"Who cares about Junes, anyways? Because of that store, our business is ruined, my parents hate me, and the neighbors talk behind my back. I wish everything would just disappear…"_ Saki depressingly said.

"I-It's a lie… This can't be…" Yosuke stuttered weakly, completely confused. "Senpai's not like that!"

"Sadly, she is." Yosuke looked at Naruto with tears in his eyes. "What we are hearing is her darker side which everyone has. Grief. Anger. All the stuff people hide. You shouldn't let that get the better of you." Sasuke looked at Naruto with shocked. "The fact that the part of the photo with that girl and you are intact means-"

"Shut the hell up! There's no fucking way she was like that!" Yosuke screamed in horror.

_"It's-sniff-so sad… I feel so sorry for myself… Boo hoo."_ The group turned and was shocked to see another Yosuke, glowing with a purple aura and having yellow eyes being in the corner. _"Actually, I'm the one who thinks everything's a pain in the ass… Hahaha…."_

"H-Huh? Two Yosukes?" Teddie asked, looking back and forth between the two Yosukes.

"Who are you?" Yosuke ran up to his double, glaring at it. "I-I wouldn't think that…"

_"Hahaha… Yeah, right. How long are you going to keep deluding yourself?"_ The other Yosuke smugly asked. _"Screw the shopping district, and Junes too! You're sick of everything, especially living out in the sticks!"_

"Wow... I was expecting the other to be the delusional one." Sasuke and Teddie looked at Naruto with shock. "Headphone-chan, you need to accept that guy or else things will get dangerous."

"Shut the hell you, you bastard!" Yosuke panicked with looking at his other self. "What're you saying? That's not true, I-"

_"You put on a good show of being carefree and happy-go-lucky 'cause you're so terrified of being alone. The more the merrier, right? You've gotta be surrounded by people to block out the pain of isolation. And what's this about checking out this world for Saki-senpai's sake? Hah! I know the real reason you came snooping."_ The other Yosuke smirked as he saw Yosuke shaking his head.

"S-Stop it!" Yosuke shouted in denial.

_"Hahaha! Why so panicked? I thought I was just spouting bullshit! Or maybe… I DO know everything you're thinking!"_ The other Yosuke chuckled. _"Why's that…? Because I AM you! You just came because you thought it sounded like a good time! What else is there to do out in this shithole? A world inside the TV—now that's exciting! You didn't have a single other reason for coming here, did you?"_

"That's no true… Stop… Stop it…" Naruto and Sasuke realized Yosuke was breaking down before them. Sasuke didn't know what to do as this was the first time they ever seen something like this.

"Just accept it, Headphone-chan. He's your darker side you want noone to know about. If you don't-"

_"You're just trying to act like a big shot!"_ The other Yosuke shouted back over Naruto. _"If all went well, hey, maybe you could even be a hero! And that Senpai you were so sweet on? Her death was the perfect excuse!"_

"That's not true!" Yosuke shouted in anger. "What are you? Who are you?"

The other Yosuke chuckled. _"I already told ya. I'm you… Your Shadow… There's nothing I don't know about you!"_

"Screw that! I don't know you!" Yosuke spat back in full fury. "You can't be me, you son of a bitch!"

_"Mwuhahahaha!"_ The other Yosuke laughed out. _"That's right! Say it again!"_

"You're not me!" Yosuke gritted his teeth, confused to why his other self laughed. "You're nothing like me!

The other Yosuke smirked. _"Ya, that's right. I am me now. I'm not you anymore, see?"_ The other Yosuke was suddenly engulfed in black and red mist, knocking Yosuke back as the gusts coming from the other Yosuke blew down the walls of the place to make it appear like a stage.

"And it hatched." Naruto sighed as the other three were shocked to see some strange camouflage frog beast with a black simplified man on top wearing a red scarf and had huge hands in yellow gloves and shuriken for eyes.

**"I am a Shadow… The true self… I'll crush everything that bores me starting with you!"** Shadow Yosuke pointed at the group. **"Wind of Oblivion!"** The monster jumped up and slammed down to unleash a blade of wind which hit Sasuke and Yosuke, knocking them back, but Naruto got behind them and stopped them from being blown away.

"Seems your weak to wind, Sasuke," Sasuke looked at Naruto as he helped Yosuke and him up. "But, Headphone-chan… You need to calm down."

"No! What the hell is that thing?" Yosuke shouted, pointing at what his Shadow had become.

"You," Naruto said calmly before running towards the Shadow.

**"Heh! Get out of my way!"** The shadow swung at Naruto only for Naruto to disappear and reappear on its arm when the hand hit and run up its arm and kick the human thing on the head. **"Ow! Pain in the ass!"** The shadow flailed around causing Naruto to fall off. **"Got'cha!"**

"Naruto!" Sasuke watched as the shadow hit Naruto right out of the air and the blond cough up blood with hitting one of the beams nearby. "Izanagi!" Sasuke shouted with fury, crushing the blue card again when it appeared in his hand for his Persona to appear. "Zio!" Sasuke shouted for it to launch a lightning attack which hit dead on and knocked the Shadow onto its back.

"Heh! Naruto chuckled while getting up, not seemingly caring he had blood coming out of his mouth. "Here's my chance! Bombs away!" Naruto chimed pulling something out of the bag and throwing it at the shadow. Sasuke, Yosuke and Teddie were shocked to seeing several pipe bombs which hit the belly of the monster before exploding.

"Holy shit! What the fucking hell was that?!" Yosuke shouted, in total shock.

"I guess you weren't lying about being able to make bombs!" Sasuke shouted over the roar of the flames, though now definitely avoiding making Naruto's bad side. 'That should have done it.'

**"Damn pain in the asses!"** The shadow shouted while getting back up, shocking Sasuke and Yosuke. **"Is that all you can do? B-oring!"** The shadow chimed before slamming its hand down to make the flames go out. It then launch a punched at Naruto, it's arms extending like rubber.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted in a panic.

"Huh?" Naruto's eyes widen before he launched into the air with a light appear beneath him.

**"Stop moving, you jackass!"** Sasuke, Yosuke, and Teddie watched in shock and horror as Naruto seemingly bounced around, avoiding the stretching arms. Each bounce being pushed off a seeming circle of purple lights in the form of odd patterns to do so before landing up on a cross beam above.

"I... No... My body remembers..." Naruto chuckled while looking down at the shadow, jumping out of the way as it attacked again.

"Yosuke. That was a part of you. If you don't calm down, more shadows will gather!" Teddie whined, already feeling other Shadows acting up.

**"Heh! You're always bored. You were only dating Senpai because it seemed like fun!"** The Shadow taunted, still trying to hit Naruto. **"You hated everything and wanted nothing but to get away from this damn boring place!"**

"No! That's not me!" Yosuke shouted, refusing to accept the monster before him was himself. "No! No! No!" Yosuke shouted, getting up and running only for the Shadow to skid away from trying to get Naruto and got in front of Yosuke. He swung at Yosuke, knocking him right into Teddie and Sasuke. However, Izanagi got in front of them to protect the three.

However, Teddie noticed a dark mist appearing on the floor and panicked. "Oh, no! The surrounding Shadows are beginning to resonating with him! Things are going to get grizzly bad if we don't stop him soon!" Teddie cried as Sasuke got up and helped Yosuke back up.

'Though Izanagi moves on his own…' Sasuke experimented, holding the golf club he had like the sword Izanagi had and charged forward for Izanagi to mimic including when he swung for Izanagi to swing at Shadow Yosuke, though the Shadow dodged by jumping up onto the metal bars, laughing before jumping again and knocking Izanagi back hence knocking Sasuke onto the floor and right into Yosuke and Teddie, knocking the bear down. 'Dammit! I see! I can control Izanagi movements, but the cost is I feel the pain he feels!' Sasuke thought before realizing he was wide open as the Yosuke's shadow was in the air.

**"Now die,assholes!"** The shadow roared, slamming down.

"Aaah-Huh?!" Teddie gasped along with Sasuke and Yosuke as some kind of cage of purple lights blocked the shadows attack.

**"What the hell?!" **The shadow shouted before finding itself launched off the light as it disbursed and landed after doing a flip. **"You're just an annoying brat!"** Shadow Yosuke shouted seeing Naruto before the three. **"Get out of the way, jackass! You're annoying!"**

"You're the one who needs to calm down, Headphone-chan." All four looked at Naruto as he sighed. "Allowing yourself to get worked over insults is annoying." Naruto said while holding out his hand.

"W-What is that?" Yosuke said, seeing a sort of purple egg shaped gem within an elegant cage like casing, akin to a fancy bird cage within Naruto's hand.

"My means of protecting and helping others." Naruto smiled back at the three before the gem gave off a blinding light and engulfed Naruto.

**"What the fuck?!"** The shadow shouted as the three looked away, though noticed the screens around the stage flicking and showing odd images.

"Nani?" Sasuke was shocked so see Naruto appearing on the screen in shades of violet while the background was dark with cut outs of cameras behind him.

Naruto held out the gem that was before in his hand before beginning an odd dance of seemingly being robotic while the frame stopped and seemingly moved with back with frozen silhouette versions of himself in pure value of purple shifting back as the real one kept dancing, slow at first before speeding up seamlessly. Within an instant, all the silhouettes and Naruto was snipped apart by what appeared to be a old fashion Japanese nigiri scissors, exposing a yellow shaded mourning figure in old European dress with its hands in some kind of cuff reaching up for something to burst from it as if shredding. This was Naruto with his back facing them, now wearing a purple top hat with a whitish metal card that also looked to be a camera with purple circle gems on it in the yellow band. Also on his back was a violent and light purple furred backpack in the form of a cat holding onto his back. He spun around, his hands showing as one hand suddenly had a yellowish metal gauntlet with a seeming nigiri scissor mechanism on the left hand and one his right was a gauntlet with a purple circle gem set in a circle plate mechanism with two smaller circles on the top and bottom. Once his front was shown, it showed the coat opened, exposing a white dress shirt that was short and showed his stomach and the purple tail coat kept from going all over the place with yellow thin change. He also was wearing purple shorts with yellow and purple striped stockings and yellow covers over purple boots. A yellow ribbon was around his neck to keep his collar of both the dress shirt and coat together and matched the ribbon threads keeping his detached sleeves from coming off. He fell down before getting back up without using his hands and doing a posed with his hand out while the shreds of the silhouettes and woman were falling around him.

"If you are just going to be naughty, I will have to put you into time out!" The three looked back to see the light had died out and Naruto was standing there in the same costume as him on the television. "Hm?" Naruto looked over himself, noticing the changes. "How cute." Naruto hummed, making Teddie, Yosuke, and Sasuke sweat.

**"Don't joke around with me, magical girl bastard!" **The shadow roared, swing its arm across the stage at Naruto.

"Oie. Will you chill?" Naruto sighed, jumping right out of the way, using the same circles of violet light, but now the patterns were clear to show rings of light connected to simple camera and nigiri scissors outlines. "Also, the term which I just remember is not Mahou Shoujo. I am a Puella Magi... Or Puer Magi since I recently remember what 'Puella' means in Latin." Naruto chimed, taking off his hat. "Now, what is inside my hat?" Naruto hummed yanking out... A white rabbit patch up doll creature with a purple tail coat and yellow watch which looked at him with Naruto looking at him. "Hm... Um... I don't think you were in my hat before?" Naruto blinked confused.

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto?!" Sasuke shouted, trying to figure out the nonsense before him. However, he then saw Yosuke's Shadow aiming at Naruto while the blond was focused on the rabbit. "Dammit! Move!"

"Here you go!" Naruto shouted, letting the rabbit go. In a puff of smoke it suddenly became his size and slammed down on the shadow's extended hand with a hammer made from it's pocket watch. "Oh. That's new... I think..." Naruto hopped again watching as the rabbit parry the shadow, allowing Izanagi to get another hit in with its swords.

**"You just act nice for an ego boost from everyone else! Even when you knew others were annoyed by your presence!"** The Shadow taunted at Yosuke. **"All because you're the son of the manager! You worked with the others just to mess with the workers and have some fun!"**

"No! You're wrong! You're wrong! You're wro-"

"Izanagi!" Sasuke shouted, punching at the same time as Izanagi… And hitting Yosuke square on the cheek as his Persona hit Yosuke's Shadow.

"Ow! That hurt!" Yosuke whined, holding his cheek.

"Oops… Wrong guy." Sasuke blankly said while Teddie snickered.

"Say what!" Yosuke shouted, sweating at Sasuke. "You little-"

"Didn't you like her?" Yosuke looked at Sasuke in confusion. "Senpai, I mean."

"Yeah… I truly loved her…" Yosuke said, snapped out of his shock. "She always seemed to have fun at work. I really liked her." He reflected back on all the fun times he had with the other workers at Junes along with Saki. All the laughs and smiles they had, he couldn't believe all of them were lies.

"Then, isn't that good enough?" Sasuke asked, holding out his hand to Yosuke. At first, Yosuke was surprise before he sighed and relaxed, realizing what Sasuke meant. Even if some of those laughs and smiles were false… He still loved Saki and he also still had good times at Junes, even if people didn't like him…

"Yeah… You're right." Yosuke said, getting up before looking down. "Deep down I knew that, but it was so lame I couldn't accept it. I'm so desperate to get along with everyone that I try to act cool. Even I think I'm damn annoying… But my feelings to Sempai were real… I wanted to know what happened to her." Yosuke looked at his Shadow which Naruto and Izanagi were fighting, seeing the rabbit Naruto had summoned get thrown apart and burst into smaller ones which swarmed the shadow. Remembering Saki's smiles, the embarrassing things that had happened to him, and even remembering the bad times. "So, that a part of me, eh? It's a part of what makes me."

**"Friggin' annoying!"** The shadow roared as it suddenly became fuzzy in some spots and seemed to be in pain.

"He's acting weird! Now's your chance!" Teddie shouted with a determined look in his eyes.

"Nothing in my sleeves but what I need!" Naruto chimed swinging his hands out for dozens of swords, spears, and other blades including scissors of various forms coming out thin air.

"Where did he have those all?" Teddie asked in shock as Naruto pulled on the ribbon on his collar and

Naruto jumped up. He threw his arm out for several ribbons to launch through the air. The ribbon tied onto the weapons, still falling, "Ribbon Pinning!" Naruto shouted while swinging his arms and all the weapons went right to Yosuke's shadow.

**"Agh!"** The shadow roared, the weapons digging into it before it began tied up in the ribbons and pinned to the floor.

"All you, Sasuke-chan!" Sasuke nodded, looking straight at the shadow.

"Inazagi! Zio!" Sasuke shouted for his Persona to summon up a bolt of lightning above Shadow Yosuke and hit the pinned shadow dead on, destroying it. It turned into a black mist for the mist to dissipate and expose the other Yosuke from before, on the ground beaten.

Yosuke walked up to his shadow and sighed. "Dammit… It hurts to face yourself… I knew it wasn't lying… But I was so ashamed that I didn't want to admit it… You're me… and I'm you… When you get down to it, all of this is me." Yosuke's shadow nodded and turned into a blue mist that turned into a white jumpsuit ninja with a red scarf, shuriken on its cameo gloves that were frog like the eyes atop its head and he had the a gold "V" on its neck that was eerily similar to the grin that was on the Shadow monster before. "This is my persona…"

**"Heh heh heh! And soon my familiar!" **Sasuke, Teddie, and Yosuke looked up to see another Naruto. However, instead of the magical boy, it was a toddler with claw like arms and horns. His clothes dirty and worn. **"Become mine!" **The demonic Naruto shouted, aiming fro Yosuke's Persona. It's eyes widen as several blades went through its side and was slammed into the wall.

"What the hell?!" Yosuke shouted before seeing his Persona disappeared and turned into a card which floated down to Yosuke and was absorbed into him. Yosuke sighed tiredly before he kneels down with his head down, scaring Sasuke and Teddie for a moment.

**"Don't stop me! I hate everything and want to destroy it all!"** Yosuke, Teddie, and Sasuke looked back at the demonic Naruto to find Naruto in front of it. **"If everyone going to fuck with me, I will fuck them right back! I want them to feel the same pain and suffering I did all my life! Heck, I'll go a step further and destroy every fucking thing!"**

"Naruto... Is that?" Sasuke said, realizing what the demonic version of the blond was.

"Is 'fuck' your favorite word?" The three looked at the real Naruto with shock, seeing he the ribbon pinning the demonic Naruto coming from his collar one. "This is what I kind of expected... Though, I guess Shadows say the truth unless something turns them delusional."

"Waaah?! Hero! Don't reject your Shadow?!"Teddie shouted in panic as Sasuke and Yosuke braced for a repeat.

**"Shut the fucking up and let me go! I'll kill everything I hate!" **Demonic Naruto shouted, grinning. **"I want to spread despair on everything! AGH!"** Sasuke's eyes widen as Naruto had stabbed his double right through the mouth with a spear. Teddie hid behind the shocked brunet while Yosuke barely managed to get to the trash can near the door to puke into.

"I get it now... Shadows and those might actually be the same thing..." Naruto said with a poker face. "However, the instant the balance is tipped... A Shadow can go berserk... You are a step farther than that."

"W-What are you talking about, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, though even he was shocked at the brutality the blond was showing.

"Simple. The laws." Naruto smiled while looking back at Sasuke, moving his hand up for his double to be sliced in half and black liquid shoot out from the halves before disappearing. Sasuke, however, blinked at what was left behind.

"What... is that?" Teddie asked as the trio looked behind Naruto. Behind him was some kind of black metal cage with a spike which seemed to root into the ground. Ensnarled in the cage was the violet beads Sasuke knew had Naruto's memories contained.

Naruto looked at what was left just when the odd caged suddenly bent outward from the center and an inky black substance began to seep out of it.

"Aaaah! Something bad is coming from it!" Teddie shouted, clinging onto Yosuke and Sasuke in horror as the cage made more hideous sounds of metal twisting and bending. They were shocked when everything around them began to form cracks, as if glass.

"What is fucking hell is that?!" Yosuke trembled, hugging Teddie in equal horror. Sasuke just stood there frozen, sensing a wave of dread hit him. Much like when he found his slain family members the night of the massacre. Yet, he had no idea why the little object was giving him such a feeling.

"I guess I killed that Shadow too late... Since my beads probably have magic connected with them... And this one picked up a bunch of beads full of crap memories... It became a curse." Naruto sighed as everything shattered around the group as the substance from the caged beads spread all around and engulfed them.

**-To-Be-Continued-**

Endnote- And if you haven't figured out what PMMM is now, I will tell you now. PMMM is often used to shorten Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a magical girl series that popped up 2 years ago and if you don't know what it is from what you read, check it out. Especially if your a fan of Persona 1, 2, and 3. Please prepare tissues beforehand, though, especially if you plan to watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica in the movie format which the first two is the whole anime retold(exactly, not shorten) in movie format. Now, I am referring to Puella Magi Madoka Magica for the "whole" series including manga, movies, anime, games(when I want), and the spin-offs. You'll see why as you read on with further chapters.


	6. Ch 6: Someone's Been Doing Drugs

Authornote-Alrightie! Finally caught up to where I am in the old story. Starting after this chapter, expect some slower updates. My main proofreaders are in college and I now have a job. I am going for a goal of at least one chapter per month as my minimum for updating. I am going to try to get the next chapter of my new story out later this month since I got to do some edits with the feedback I got. I am trying a different style with that story due as practice for a story I want to do. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not owe anything of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series. If I owned any of these, I would not be working a job right now and instead be working fully on personal projects full-time.

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Ch.6 "Someone's been doing drugs"

"Damn... They have a lot of energy." Kakashi sighed, catching his breath as Iruka and the girl with them hid in a different classroom, the hallways full of seemingly drunk, zombie-like kunoichi and shinobi ready to attack whoever comes into their path.

"Victims are usually like that... This is weird." The two ninja looked at the girl as Kakashi carefully closed the door and locked it. "This place isn't even at all depressing."

"Victims?" Iruka asked, wanting to know what was going on.

"They are being controlled by a kiss." The two men glared at her making her sheepishly laughed. "Basically, it puts their prey under a trance and it then will either control them to make them kill or commit suicide to get the life energy they need to live or just draw a victim into it's labyrinth... However, there wasn't one here when I sensed the building before entering."The girl sighed, a bit worried.

"What is controlling them?" Kakashi asked, now wondering exactly who this girl was.

"A-"

_"Kazumi!"_ A voice buzzed out, shocking the two ninja before the girl pulled out a square like device. _"It's a trap!"_

"What?!" The girl shouted into the device. "What about you gals?! Where are you all and your status?!"

_"Fighting a different one. Masaki and Maki are heading your way! The girl we were going to see to join us was the target of who we been investigating! She can control them!"_

"Really?! Is that even possible!?" Iruka and Kakashi looked at the girl with raised eyebrows before hearing banging on the door. Kakashi looked back and realized also there was the sound of wood being chopped. 'Oh, boy... And I can't knock them out...' Kakashi thought, trying to figure out exactly what to do. He tried knocking out the teachers, but it seems whatever was controlling them was able to also wake them up in minutes after being knocked unconscious... Or, are they even conscious at the moment?

"Hatake-san..." Kakashi looked at Iruka, noticing his worried face. "This is the second story, right? Couldn't we escape through the windows?"

"True..." Kakashi sighed, turning back with seeing one of the blades now digging through the door. "Though, they might be waiting outside, so we need to-"

"We aren't going to escape." The two adults looked at the girl, a hint of panic hitting them as she stood up.

"No! We can get away and get help!" Iruka stumbled with trying to walk over to her. "You shouldn't give up hope!"

"I'm not giving up hope, because I am hope." Both Kakashi and Iruka's eyes widen as they saw the girl held out her hand. The ring on his middle finger suddenly turning into an egg shaped gem in a golden holder, glowing before seemingly disappearing.

"What the-Ah?!" Iruka gasped as the girl's clothes suddenly disappeared. Within an instant of swinging her arms out, black, puff arm warmers that look closer to sleeves appear on her arms. Ribbons of black and white appeared, forming into a white top and very short black skirt which she finished off with trying a black bow on the front where her skin showed which only a pair of black ribbons going across her breast to hide them. While clicking her heels on the ground for black boots to appear, a cap sprouted from her main shoulder ribbons. As she grabbed a cross shaped staff with a gem in the middle of the intersecting points, she put on a witch like hat on top of her head. "N-Nani?!" Iruka stuttered before looking at Kakashi and noticing a slight wetness on his mask right at the bottom of his nose. "Seriously?"

"You have one as well." Kakashi pointed out as Iruka realized the slight drip of blood going down from his own nose. "But, what are you?" Kakashi asked, before the two ninja jumped with hearing wood beginning to fail and looked back to see the zombie teachers almost into the room.

"I am a Puella Magi, someone who is brings hope!" The girl chimed while holding her staff up. "But, to do that, I have to fight despair! Open Sesame Oil!" The two ninja were once again blinded by light as a hole seemingly opened up above her staff.

"Un..." The teachers were also blinded, but then managed to break in... Only to find the Kakashi, Iruka, and the girl gone. "Huh?" The teacher's drunkenly cocked their heads in confusion and looked around in a daze to try and figure out where their prey went.

**-Television-**

'Nani?' Sasuke thought while suddenly finding himself floating through the air. However, his confusion came from exactly where he was at the moment. Broken buildings were floating around while odd creatures that looked to be made of speakers were jumping around and seemingly all over the place.

"What the hell is this!?" Sasuke looked to his side to find Yosuke and Teddie there as well, also floating... However, he noticed they seemed more like paper cut outs than flesh and blood.

"What happened to you?!" Tedie shouted while Yosuke noticed his body. Sasuke looked at his own body, finding he, too, looked more like he was made of paper instead of flesh.

"Nani?! Did you do this?!" Yosuke shouted in a panic as Sasuke looked at his surroundings closer to see all around that the buildings and creatures were like them. Though he recognized the buildings seemed like from the shopping district... There was other building of which he recognized from Konoha.

"No! I never have seen this before!" Teddie waved his arms in a panic before the three of them heard the sound of buzzing. It was like a speaker becoming alive with electricity.

**"Fucking brat! Get out of here!"**

"Ah, man, not this again!" Yosuke shouted, looking around for the source of the voice they just heard. It was buzzing with static and seemingly off. However, the three were back to back when they suddenly found the paper cut out creatures that looked like speakers flying around them.

**"Is that it?"**

**"Agh! Don't even talk about it!"**

**"Why are you fucking here?! You are nothing!"**

"The speakers are the voices!" Sasuke said aloud before the speakers suddenly went berserk with voices. Most covering others while giving a seeming roar forcing them to cover their ears.

**"Why is it going to the academy?!"**

**"It could hurt our kids! Just like it did back then!"**

**"What the fuck are you doing?! Are you a retard?!"**

**"Get out of here, you damn bastard! We don't need your fucking help!**

**"Why are you trying to help us?! Are you trying to trick us?!"**

**"Stop fucking with us!"**

"W-Whose voices are these?!" Yosuke shouted over the roar, trembling from the sheer hate and anger seeping through the words.

"...They... are from Konoha..." Sasuke said, his eyes widen with recognizing the voices. He did not know them by name or anything... But he remember the similar voices from the parents and ninja that taught and helped out at the academy. There were also voices he did not recognized at all, but founded like girls that was around his age... Just not in his class as he never heard them there.

**"Why..."**

"Naruto?!" Sasuke shouted, hearing Naruto's voice... But it sounded much younger.

"Hero?! Where's Hero!?" Teddie shouted, crying as he wanted out of here.

"Pervo?!" Yosuke asked in a shout, barely able to hear over the loud noise.

**"Why am I a 'it?'"** The group of three focused above, finding a bunch of the odd speaker creatures flying above them in a sphere. **"I'm not an it! Why the hell does everyone hates me?!"** Naruto's voice roared over the noise, though now sounding distorted. ** "Why?! Why?! WHY?!"** The creatures began to move and the three instantly felt dread in their stomachs with seeing something else among the speaker creatures. **"IF NOONE IS GOING TO ANSWER ME, THEN I WILL DESTORY EVERYTHING!"**

"Move!" Sasuke shouted as the three managed to move in one direct and barely dodge whatever shot out of the mass of now torn apart creatures.

"What the hell is that?! A Shadow?!" Yosuke shouted as they looked down to see some kind of monster. It looked like a wasp, though had warped speakers as antennas and broken mask of an angry face for its own face. It's body looked like pieces of ripped up paper sucked together with a dripping, oddly scribbled liquid which gave it clawed like arms.

"That's a Shadow I never seen before!" Teddie shouted as the wasp suddenly zip-zap and headed right back at them. Sasuke's eyes widen and summoned out his card.

"Izanagi!" Sasuke shouted while crushing it, Izanagi appearing and slashing at the creature, knocking it to the side and smashing it into the builds.

"Agh?!" Yosuke yelped as the three of them suddenly returned to normal. "Nani?! I am flesh again?!... Um... Let's see... Persona!" Yosuke attempted to crush the card like Sasuke... Only to realize nothing happened as the card never appeared. "W-Why can't I summon out my thing?!" Yosuke shouted, seeing the creature come right back only for Sasuke to swing with Izanagi matching his moves, easily repelling it with a slash of the blade. But not before the wasp used it's stringer to hit Izanagi in the arm.

"Maybe it hasn't fully accepted you? I mean, you just accepted it." Teddie explain before Yosuke and him heard Sasuke grunting and looked at him. Sasuke was gripping his arm where Izanagi was stung.

"Yeah..." Sasuke grunted, finding it odd as the pain was not going away. However, his glared at the wasp. "What the hell is that thing made of?... It was hit by Izanagi's blade, but it didn't even cut!" Sasuke watched the wasp charged again. "Zio!" Sasuke shouted, hitting the creature with a lightning bolt. However, his eyes widen with seeing it pushed right through the attack and speeding right pass Izanagi due to Sasuke's surprise. But, not before a blur suddenly appeared before the trio, standing between them and the wasp right as it was about to put its stringer through Sasuke.

"Persona." A voice calmly said, slightly trembling.

**"GAWEAG?!"** The trio was shocked as the wasp was pinned to one of its buildings by several oversized nirigi scissors. It trashed about, trying to get free before suddenly one pinned its head, the blades right at the its neck.

"What the?" Yosuke whispered before seeing who was before Sasuke. "Uzumaki?!" Yosuke shouted, seeing Naruto back in his normal clothing standing before them with hands up and seemingly frozen. "Are you okay?!"

"... Naruto?" Sasuke asked, moving to the side some to look at Naruto's front to see Naruto panting and his pupils small from shock before he relaxed.

"...So... You are me?" Sasuke blinked at Naruto's statement before hearing Teddie and Yosuke gasped. He looked at them to see them slightly trembling in fear before looking at where they were looking. His eyes widen at what he saw. Standing on the bend point of the scissors that had pinned the wasp's head was a female being. Or at least, appeared to be female. It had metal yellow hair with bangs that covered most of its face as it sulked over, though also showing the end of the hair was two nirigi blades. It seemed to wear what looked to be a white headband, glassy purple headphones which matched the gems on the nirigi bows it had on collar and dress. The dress, purple, was opened in the front were and apron covered the front and held in place with a yellow ribbon tied on the back of its stomach area. Her hands were cuffed with a large, oddly more of a bracelet with a pair of purple gems parallel to each other. It's body seemed to be thin and barely there, an eerie gray which made it clearly not human... However, Sasuke could see why the others were fearful. The inside of the dress exposed had odd patterning of seemingly droplets all about in strokes, as if from a brush along with it has a seemingly outline... Much like the monster wasp, which was clearly not a "flesh and blood."

"..." The female creature's head moved for odd psychedelic bubbles to come from out behind the bangs, showing odd symbols as the multi-color spheres. Sasuke, Yosuke, and Teddie flinching as the creature twisted it's head to the side, cracking sounds coming from it in the process.

"W-What is that?" Sasuke asked, shivering as even though he could not see its eyes, he felt it was looking straight at his soul.

"Alice? I see. Off of this worlds 'Alice in Wonderland?... I remember now." Sasuke looked at Naruto who stepped forward calmly, a creepy smile on his face. Another series of cracks came from the female creature and Sasuke looked back to see more bubbles coming from the bangs again. It's head now bend in the other direction. "So... I... No... My 'self' never changed even though technically I changed so much... In various ways." Naruto spun around, the speaker creatures suddenly heading towards him.

"Gatling Gun! Look out!" Yosuke shouted in horror before seeing Naruto look at him over his shoulder before freaking all three out as he grinned.

"Megidola." Naruto chimed for the female creature to unleash a shriek as a ball of oddly colored light appeared within the swarm of speaker creatures before exploding in a large blast of dark light.

"How-How he do that?" Teddie said in shock with watching the creatures falling down all around them, burning during the slow descend. "... I think my mind has been beary blown..."

"Dude! You don't have a brain!" Yosuke shouted, through very worried as some of the burning creatures hit the buildings and some of which now lit as well. "Uh... Is there a fire department here?"

"What's a fire department?" Yosuke was paled at the question.

"Do not worry, Headphone-chan," The three focused back on Naruto who was spinning around while seemingly dancing towards the female creature, avoiding the burning creatures. "The barrier is breaking and this one has lost the game."

"Uh... Who lost the game?" Yosuke asked while Sasuke was pondering Naruto's sanity... As well as his own at the moment.

"A battle is a game in a sense. Correct, me?" Naruto said while smiling at the female creature, now standing nearly right under it. The creature did a seeming nod with a crackdown, though the beast it was pinning now trashing in a panic. "However, to fully deal with the dream turned nightmare, there is only one way." Naruto brought up his hand, the wasp creature looking at Naruto. "Please, die for me. Off with her head." Naruto sickly chimed while wiping his thumb across his neck.

**"AIGEITH-"** The wasp unleashed a last roar before the nirigi scissors at its neck closed, launching its head off while the other scissors cut through and making black liquid spurt all over the place.

"Gug... I'm... going to have a sour stomach tonight." Sasuke just nodded dumbly at Yosuke's comment, guessing he was gagging from the sound of it. However, they were shocked as their surroundings suddenly warped and returned back to the liquor store they were in and the creatures and burning surroundings gone. "What the hell?! Where everything go?" They head a sick splat to look before Naruto to see a black blob before it moved to the shadows. "Gross..."

"Well, it is good to see that inhabitant has not met the usually fate of what happens to one turned into a Witch." Naruto sighed, turning to them while holding his hand out to show several beads now on a string.

"Dude... Who... What are you?" Yosuke asked, looking at the blond with a death glare with seeing the female figure still standing behind Naruto."There is no way you-"

"Nar-Gaug!" Sasuke collapsed to his knees, gripping his arm as horrible pain while Izanagi seemingly disappeared behind him, it too in pain while disappearing.

"Sensei!" Teddie shouted as Yosuke and him went up to him.

"Uchiha! You okay?!" Yosuke shouted before his eyes widening in horror with seeing an inky blackness to Sasuke's right hand and seeing it spread from his neck and going to his face and possibly the rest of his body. "W-Wh-Bear?! Is there a medic?!"

"What's a medic?! What's going on?!" Teddie cried, waving his arms in panic before jolting back with Naruto appearing before the three. "Hero!? Don't do that?! We need to help Sensei!"

"What are you doing, bastard?!" Yosuke shouted, ready to punch the blond with seeing him grab Sasuke's arm... And watched as Naruto pushed Sasuke's sleeve up to exposed a oddly scribbled marking, as if a sting. "No way... That thing poisoned him..." Yosuke trembled, realizing the situation.

"Not so much poisoning." Sasuke's eyes widen, seeing the same cage they saw before, but noticed it was still badly bended and no longer had Naruto's beads in it. He touched the round part to the odd marking on Sasuke's arm.

"Woah!" Teddie gasped as the markings on Sasuke began to retreat as the cage pulled a black smoke from Sasuke's arm, becoming black within the cage. "It's cleansing him!"

"...You know what that is, don't you..." Yosuke sighed in relief, seeing the markings completely gone along with the main mark off Sasuke. All into the odd cage that started in before.

"Hai, hai!" Naruto chimed while getting up from kneeling down to help Sasuke. "It's my main job." Naruto threw the cage up for the female figure to appear behind him and catch it. Sasuke, Teddie, and Yosuke instantly paled as a mouth suddenly tore open on the part of the face exposed which they saw without it had no features and chomped onto the cage into a mouth of seemingly various splatters and colors. It chewed before making a small hiccup and a ball of white light came out along with something which Naruto caught.

"That... is so wrong..." Yosuke sighed, collapsing onto his rear end from the strain his mind has been through. They watched as the mouth of the figure disappeared. "But... What the hell is that? Teddie here sure doesn't know." Yosuke sighed, deciding now anything was possible.

"She's me. Just as I am myself." Yosuke and Teddie looked at Naruto oddly before Sasuke's eyes widen in realization.

"Persona?!" Sasuke gasped, remembering what Naruto said before. "Wait... We can summon Personas because we faced ourselves before? Right?" Sasuke asked, now connecting the dots in his mind.

"Don't know. That memory I am still missing." Naruto sighed, watching as the light suddenly shot up at high speed, disappearing. "However, it is a high probability for you... Me... Alice I knew for a while."

"But, then... How did we end up in the television?" Sasuke sighed, rubbing his head with what Naruto said. 'Naruto has special powers... Go figure. But, why was he holding back in the academy if he was able to fight off monsters?... Wait, did he just say he had his Persona before?'

"Actually, this is the answer." Naruto showed what he caught, exposing a pendent that was a nail and two circular rings... But the nail was bent all over, nearly crushing the two rings.

"What's that?" Teddie asked, curious while Yosuke noticed a similarity to the pendant.

"Hey... Isn't that one of those nail pendants I seen in Junes... Though, isn't there suppose to be more nails that make a cross?" Yosuke asked, confused as to why such a pendant was there.

"Is that cross a religious symbol, Headphone-chan?" Yosuke nodded, giving the blond an odd look. "Then you are close. This is a grave marker."

"Oh. A grave mar-Say what?" Yosuke asked, realizing what Naruto said. "L-Like as in grave marker for the dead kind?"

"Correct." Naruto said while stretching. "When a Puella Magi or Witch dies in the world Sasuke and I are from, this is what is left behind. It is the catalyst for allowing one to become a Puella Magi through creating a miracle or becoming a Witch with casing a curse. Once the wish or curse is made, the nail bends to which side we have chosen and turns into either the holding of the Soul Gem that gives Puella Magi their powers to fight Witches or became the casing of the Grief Seed that gives birth to the Witch." Naruto said in a matter of fact tone.

"...You lost me... I think my brain has been mind raped to the point it can't take anything more today." Yosuke held up his hand, telling the blond to stop.

"I know. I'll explain more tomorrow and probably the next few days. I am surprised you're all taking this much better than what I seen before which some of the memories I just got back show." Naruto helped Sasuke up, who now had recovered enough from the pain to stand.

"Yeah... With all that has happened... I can accept a lot of things..." Yosuke sighed, also getting up. "When we heard Senpai's voice… I wonder if that was something Senpai had been keeping deep down inside…Haha… 'He was a real pain in the ass,' huh?" What a way to find out… Geez, this is so embarrassing." Yosuke sighed while changing the subject from Naruto. Sasuke put his hand on Yosuke's sleeve. "If you weren't here, I don't know what would've happened… Thanks, Sasuke… Same for you, Gatling Gun..." Yosuke looked to Teddie to avoid looking at the female creature still in the room. "Hey, Teddie… Could Senpai have been attacked by her other self here? Like how it just happened to me?"

"I think so." Teddie nodded in agreement. "The Shadows here were originally born from humans. Sometimes the fog clears. Then they all go berserk… And you know what happens next. A strong-willed Shadow draws others to it. And the big mass of Shadows kills the host."

"So that's why people die when it gets foggy in our world." Yosuke said with his head down in thought. However, Yosuke panted, beginning to show the signs of fatigue.

"Yosuke's pretty worn out…" Teddie said with a frown. "This world isn't made for humans. It's not comfortable for you here. I don't hear any more voices. I think we're done with this place. Let's go back." Sasuke nodded.

"Hai..." Naruto turned to face his Persona. "Though... I am glad. I was scared a bit I wouldn't be who I was without my memories. Seeing you at least shows I am still who I am... Even though you changed some... You're still Alice... You're still me... I will gladly love to fight with you by my side. My illogical self." Sasuke, Yosuke, and Teddie watched as the Persona glowed blue before fading away and turning into an object similar to the cards Sasuke and Yosuke had. However, instead it was a bluish metal and with two ribbons of metal on one side to hold a round purple gem. It floated down into Naruto's hand as the others came up behind him. They all paled with on the other side had the image of a skull before a purplish gate before it disappeared, simply showing an odd marking of a circle in the middle of the closed end of two swish marks that reminded them of the nirigi blades they saw before.

"Dude... A skull?..." Yosuke asked, now pondering the possibly of Naruto being the murder.

"Yes. Death... It seems our Personas take characteristics of tarot cards. Though, Death is fitting for me. Though it is often associated with doom and foreboding, it also reads in the Tarots as a symbol of deep change and metamorphosis." Naruto said, looking at them. The trio was shocked to see the card suddenly morph and attached to Naruto's wrist like a metal bracelet with odd markings on it. "Ah... I kind of like the other color it was... It probably was just not fully accepted then when I was still conflicted of myself." Naruto sighed, noticing the odd looks from the other three. "What?"

"Did your Persona just turn into a bracelet?" Teddie asked, Yosuke and Sasuke too speechless to say it themselves.

"Probably. I mean, that was my Soul Gem and since it is called that, I would not be surprised a Persona and Soul Gem are akin to the same." Naruto sighed before handing Yosuke the photo of Saki and him.

"Wait? When did you get this?" Yosuke asked, realizing it was the same photo they found in there.

"Oh... It seems I only have full control of that magic when I am using it fully. Though, it doesn't drain my magic..." They sweated at the blond, "However, Headphone-chan, Saki did not hate you."

"What?" Yosuke gasped before glaring, "You're just messing with me, you little sadistic bastard." Yosuke groaned, wanting his poor mind to be left alone.

"No." Naruto shook his head. "Though what you heard was also correct, the fact she did not cut up your person from the photo showed she did care for you."

"Really?" Sasuke asked while Yosuke's own eyes widen.

"Hai. Though, it might not be love like you hoped for... But, she did care for you... What you heard was the negative parts of her she was trying to hide... My guess is those hidden parts have the means to come out here... Hence the Shadows. Judging from what her voices said, she probably saw you as a little brother who was annoying at times."

"I see..." Yosuke chuckled at the pain he was feeling before smiling at Naruto. "Thanks, Gatling Gun... I guess you're not as bad as you seem. Though, mind rape aside, let's gets out of here. I am going straight to bath and sleep after that."

"Bath and sleep?" Teddie asked, confused as to what they were talking about.

"Oh, speaking of rape, our wallets are going to be raped when we get on the other side." Naruto said calm tone, as if it was normal.

"Nani?! What the hell do you mean by that?!" Yosuke roared, now taking back his words. Sasuke simply raised an eyebrow in confusion along with Teddie.

"Jersey-chan." Naruto simply said, his hands behind his head.

"Jersey?... You mean Chie-san? What does that have to do with this?" Yosuke said before both Sasuke and Yosuke's eyes widen in horror. "Oh, crap... Didn't we leave her with the life line?"

"Yep." Sasuke said, already comically crying.

"And said rope snap?"

"Yep..." Sasuke said, nodding as terror filled Yosuke's face while Teddie was glaring at them with wanting to know what they were talking about.

"Oh, shit." Yosuke slumped, a cloud of depression over both Sasuke and Yosuke.

"What are you guys talking about?!" Teddie roared, confused.

"Simple. We have to apologize to someone later." Naruto sighed, used to the impending social doom even if he could not remember why.

"Waaaah!" Several customers steer clear of Chie, wondering who made the girl so mad that she was crying. That or what kind of sick prank they pulled on her from what the gibberish she had been saying before dropping it and leaving to shop elsewhere in the store. "I'm so pissed! If-If they come b-back!" Chie sniffled, tears running down her face while hugging the rope hard. "Yosuke is ten orders of beefsteak! Sniff... Uchiha-san is nikudon!...Sniff... And Uzumaki-san is five bowls of ramen-Sniff!.. Because that bastard's name means fishcake! Waaaah!" Chie cried waiting and hoping the three boys came out of the televisions alive and not dead on a telephone pole at this moment.

**-Television-**

"I-Is this some kind of sick genjutsu?" Iruka asked as Kakashi and he was back to back, studying their surroundings. They were in some kind of new world, where it abstractly seem like a school, but many dolls were running around, gathering cut outs of toys and sweets and everything was broken and connected with ribbons and licorice.

"Someone's been doing drugs." Kakashi sighed, sensing killer intent from several of the bird dolls, noticing they seemed like patched up pieces of fabric. Several of them dive bomb right at the two ninja before behind blasted away with a flash of light.

"Neither. This is a Witch's labyrinth." The girl from before was standing there, holding her staff out. "The being controlling those people before was the very Witch that set this up."

"A witch?" Iruka asked as the girl took off her hat. She jabbed her staff into the seemingly cardboard ground and reached into it much farther than it should for a pointed witch like hat. "Like in those creepy old ladies who use magic?" Iruka remembered hearing such stories as a child.

"No. Witches are far worse than that." The girl pulled out two swords from her hat, flipping them for the hilts to be towards the two ninja and her holding the blades. "Though I will be doing the majority of the fighting, I won't be able to protect you all the time." Both ninja grabbed a blade, noticing the hilt was similar to her staff and the metal was black with white markings on it. "My magic in those blades will at least help protect you from being afflicted with a Witch's Kiss, but try to keep your fighting to a minimum."

"What are you talking about? We are ninja, we can handle ourselves." Kakashi sighed, though slightly peeved a girl was telling him what to do when it came to fighting.

"Indeed. Follow me." Both looked at each other only to go with following the now running girl through the drug-induced like surroundings. "Let me first introduce myself." The girl said while whacking several of the crazed dolls out of their way as they continued. "My name is Kazusa Michiru, though my friends call me Kazumi and you can call me that as well." The girl chimed, unleashing several bolts from the sphere on her staff and taking out several dog like dolls in front a door which she opened. They then found themselves in a dark area with bridges that looked to be made of play logs and candy with various oversize, glowing beads hanging from the inky darkness above.. "As you can see, I am not exactly a normal girl."

"Then what are you?" Iruka asked before slashing at another bird doll that dive at him and it disappeared after a flash of light came off the sword. "And what are these things?!" Iruka said, way out of his comfort zone.

"I'm a Puella Magi." Kazumi said as they ran across the bridges with summoning out bolts to shoot at the dolls that came too close. "Puella Magi are girls and sometimes boys who gain a miracle in exchange with becoming bound to fight Witches. Witches are the opposite and are the end result of someone using that same source of a possible miracle by making it into a curse. Witches are monsters that spread despair, often killing humans to gain the energy they need to stay alive."

"So... These are Witches?" Kakashi asked, calmly taking out a dog doll that had came up from behind them.

"No, these are Familiars. They are born from a Witch to serve them, though they will sometimes leave the labyrinth and can even become Witches as well." Kazumi said while they got to another door, however, it had several symbols and looked much more complex to the other door they been through. "Though, you're about to see why I said to keep your fighting to a minimum." With opening the door, Kakashi and Iruka had a case of disorientation with several other doors and various backgrounds of odd images of scolding adults on fire and toys all about before reaching a circle room filled with toys and the walls all built up with construction paper and various toys.

"W-What is that?" Iruka said as both ninja saw before them a towering... thing they did not even know if calling it a monster was the right term. The creature looked sort of like a large rag doll, but with a bloody liquid coming out of its eyes and its body was made of various stuff animals turned into fabric, some of the stitches not holding and falling apart. It also had several ropes form arms which swung across the room, slamming something into the wall.

"Airi!" Kazumi shouted as Kakashi and Iruka's eyes widen to see a twin-tail blond hair girl in the grip of the beast doll's rope, bloody and badly hurt while pinned to the wall. "I'll help-"

"Don't!" The girl shouted, managing to knock the rope away and pull out an odd barrel weapon and firing it at the witch. "I can't let Yuuri's efforts go into vain!" The girl was wearing a purplish pink outfit that was form fitting and as exposing as Kazumi's outfit. Around her neck was a collar that held a silver spoon and she had a dirty color orange-yellow gem under her breasts.

"What?" Iruka asked, confused before noticing something. A distance before them was some kind of cage made of ribbons... However, the ribbons looked torn up and worn while several of the Familiars they saw earlier attacking it. He saw a girl crying inside when one of the Familiars moved.

"Ah! Bonus, bonus!" The trio looked up to see a girl riding atop the creature, her hand out with seeming strings on it. Her outfit was orange and with a jester like feel while her free hand held a curved scythe-style staff with five jutting points. "I'm going to be getting two Soul Gems for the price of one!" The girl happily chuckled, the beast's ropes blocking the bullets from the wounded girl who was aiming at her.

"Why the hell are you after other Puella Magi!?" The wounded girl, Airi, shouted in fury. "Aren't you a Puella Magi as well!"

"Yes. But, who can't past up holding gems that are the literal living essence?" The girl on the beast chimed, a creepy grin on her face. "Though, only now I could come after Konoha Puella Magi with that blasted bastard Uzumaki-chan out of the way. He always seemed to know when I would try and gem pick here." The girl shrugged while Iruka and Kakashi's eyes widen. "Now that he is gone, I can't miss out the chance to get some gems from some well-known Puella Magi, like yourself, leader of Pleiades Saints!" The creature swung one of its tentacles at Kazumi who used her staff to knock it out of the way before moving away from Kakashi and Iruka.

"Yuuki Sasa! Did you do something to Naruto-sensei?!" Kazumi roared, unleashing a fury of bolts of lights at the jester girl which the beast blocked for her.

"Hell no. There's no way I could even touch that bastard." The jester girl chuckled, "He's was way too sly and strong for me to even think of gem picking. Even I understand my limits. If I didn't, I would be dead." The girl noticed the cage of ribbons beginning to dissolve away. "Though, I am thankful to who or whatever off Uzumaki-chan! Now there is noone in my way!" Kazumi and Airi watched in horror as the beast's tentacle went straight for the cage barrier which was almost collapsed now.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Iruka roared, lopping off the rope tentacle while Kakashi took care of the familiars. "Naruto was my student! Yet, you're attacking these girls which you're saying he protected and calling him a bastard?!"

"Of course, he is a bastard. What else can I call that guy. He's insane with power and has a whole harem of girls after him! I'm so jealous!" Everyone sweated as the girl squealed. "The strong can take what they want and he had everything a guy could ask for!"

"That's not true!" Airi growled at the girl. "Hardly no one liked him because he seemed to know everything that was going on and always meddled in everyone's business!... Yet, he still would help others no matter how much spite and curses was spat at him!" Tears went down Airi's checks as Kakashi and Iruka noticed the gem on the girl's chest becoming oddly discolored with seeming scribbles within the gem.

"Airi! Pull back with Yuma and ninja! You're close to your limit!" Kazumi shouted, noticing the gem as well.

"...I know..." The girl said, jumping towards the beast and running up one of the tentacles while shooting at the girl which the beast blocked again. "... Yuma! Remembered what you promised me!"

"Airi-nii-chan!" Iruka blinked, looking back to see a green hair girl wearing a darker tone dress to her hair color holding onto his leg as she was crying.

"What's the use of fighting me when you're about to die?" The jester girl chuckled before suddenly finding herself and the beast she was riding entangled by strings and ribbons, Airi caught right against the crazed girl in the trap. "Ha! What can you do like this?!" The jester girl laughed.

"Simple. Following advice of that said bastard." Iruka and Kakashi's eyes widen in horror with seeing a pipe bomb in Airi's hands which the timer was going down. They also noticed explosive tags hanging off the strings. "'Always have a back-up for when your magic fails.'" Airi chuckled, tears going down her face. "If I am going to die, I might as well take you with me and ensure Yuuri's last patient survives... I am sorry, Kazumi... Please protect Yuma for me..."

"Let me go! I don't want to die!" The jester girl screamed, trying to get away just as the bomb hit zero.

"Airi-nii-chan!" Yuma shouted as suddenly the bomb went off. Iruka covered the young girl just as Kazumi jumped to them and encased them all with her cloak as the blast filled the room. The barrier wavered away, leaving the tightly wound cape in the main teacher workroom.

"Are... you alright?" Kazumi asked, her voice wavering as she released her cape, Kakashi and Iruka kneeling on the floor.

"Yeah..." Kakashi sighed, through noticing Iruka comforting the crying little girl he was protecting."What.. Just happened?"

"Airi... Committed suicide to kill that murderer." Iruka and Kakashi noticed her picking up something and their eyes widen in shock at what she showed them. "When a Puella Magi dies by either a normal death or by hitting their limit, they completely disappear and leave behind a grave marker." Kazumi sniffled, tears going down her face as she show two of the same pendants Kakashi and Iruka had from the girl that disappeared before them. However, there was also an odd dark metal cage with a spike at the bottom and a symbol of a teddy bear head on the top. "Witches also leave one once their Grief Seed been exhausted or they don't get enough energy to stay alive. Once a Witch is defeated, she reverts back to a Grief Seed and will either reawaken with enough time or die once the seed is used to restore a Puella Magi's gem by cleaning the mud which is the sign of our magic being used up... That's why I believe Naruto-sensei is still alive. His marker has yet to appear."

"His marker? You can tell the difference?" Kakashi asked, standing up.

"Hai. If you look at the head of the nail, an emblem of that Puella Magi or Witch is one it." Kazumi pointed out, showing one of the pendant's nail head was in fact a five pointed flower like emblem. "This is Airi's emblem... Also, there name is on it in runes, though it only appears when a little magic is put to it. Naruto-sensei's emblem is unique as it had two symbols instead of a normal one like these, though you would not be able to tell with look at his Soul Gem while in his Puella Magi form."

"I see." Iruka said, though paling at the grip the girl holding onto him had. "Um... Kazumi, now that... Er... The Witch is gone, what has happened to the other teachers?"

"I changed their memories and they are out cold at the moment." Kakashi and Iruka turned around to see a dark hair girl with glasses and wearing an white outfit akin to a nuns outfit except showing more skin and a short hair girl wearing a yellow one-piece body suit type outside except had very short shorts instead of a long legs and a white, mainly sleeve and hood jacket. "I rewrote them to where they believe they were having a bit of a drink and someone spiked the drinks with too much alcohol."

"You know you just destroyed evidence, right?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow as the girl adjusted her glasses. He noticed a blue gem in a sort of metal holder that mead it look like a pen nib.

"Not really. It's really hard to prove to normal people the existence of Witches, which is why Puella Magi don't expose ourselves." The girl with the body suit chimed, patting the holder on her right upper leg which made the two ninja tense. It was similar to a kunai holster, but it was only holding what looked to be a very short staff instead of a knife.

"Plus, even though they were being control, they still retain somewhat of their memories of when they were being control." The girl with the pen nib gem sighed, "We had people commit suicide after being control before so we all learned how to do some memory manipulation magic to insure those we save don't waste the life we saved. Especially those who seen a Witch and can't take the truth of their existence. Stories passed down by Puella Magi's mouth prove the downsides of normal people turning on their guardians when they don't understand the differences of a Puella Magi and Witch."

"..." Both girls noticed Kazumi's tears with looking at her. "So... Airi's dead?" The body suit girl asked.

"Hai... She committed suicide to take out the Gem Picker and Witch." Kazumi said in a sad tone. "What's everyone's status, Umika?"

"Saki and Niko fought the other Witch while Satomi and Mirai acted as field monitors while Kaoru and I came to help you, though mainly ended up dealing with those who were inflicted with a Witch's Kiss and changing their memories." The pen-nib girl, Umika, said with a frown. "Thankfully, the Witch that Saki and Niko fought dropped a Grief Seed, so only our gems need to be cleaned."

"Good." Kakashi and Iruka raised an eyebrow with seeing the girls clothes turn back to normal ,Umika's turning into a dress shirt and skirt while Kaoru, the body suit girl, turned to wearing a hoodie and shorts. However, they were shocked when they saw Umika and Kazumi held out an egg shaped gem within a golden casing in one hand and Kazumi held the Grief Seed between the gems and a black smoke came out of the gems and went into the seed, making the gems shine brightly. Once the smoke fully went into the seed, it was engulfed in a similar scribble-like substance the two ninja saw before with the girl that disappeared before it turned into mist and disappeared with leaving another marker.

"What the hell?" Iruka asked aloud, confused with what had happened.

"They cleansed their gems." Iruka and Kakashi looked at the green hair girl, Yuma, who was still hugging Iruka tightly. "When Puella Magi's fight Witches, some of their curses collect within their gems because even though Puella Magi fight for hope, they still have other emotions including despair. If a Puella Magi doesn't clean her gem, they begin to lose strength in their magic. Once it becomes too dirty, they die... Just like Yuuri and Airi...Sniff..." Yuma snuggled her face into Iruka's neck, not wanting the others to see her crying.

"...What kind of sadistic bastard does that?" Kakashi asked, realizing exactly what the girl was saying. "You mean with gaining the powers to fight off those monsters, you could lose your life as well?"

"'It is not as cruel as one thinks when they compare it to life cycles.'" Umika said, getting the attention of the ninja. "Uzumaki-sensei said that. He was the one who taught Kazumi everything she knew and even help her teach us. We, too, thought this system was cruel until he explained it better to us. With gaining our pendant, we are allowed a choice. A wish for a miracle of any kind or a curse for destruction that will only come true if one is resolved enough. Everyone who gets a pendant gains the basic knowledge of Puella Magi and Witches. If one chooses neither, then they lose those memories of the pendant and Puella Magi and the pendant disappears. With Witches, their curse is not fully made by the curse, but by them completing it. If a Puella Magi is able to stop the Witch before they can complete it, they actually can save that person who made the curse, making them lose their curse at the cost of no Grief Seed for the Puella Magi. However, once the curse is made, there is no turning back for that person and hence will die as a Witch."

"As for Puella Magi, the disappearing thing is just something we have to deal with. If your are good at managing how you save people and get Grief Seeds, then you can live a long normal life. If not, you die pretty quickly. Uzumaki-sensei is a vet going on several years from what little we know of that sly guy." Kaoru sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "However, rumors that have been passed along for centuries as to the Law of Cycles, but noone has really any clue the reason why except finally ending our battle filled woes. So, when you see it as Puella Magi and Witches as two beings with similar life cycles, then it is not as cruel as it first seems. It only becomes cruel depending on how the Puella Magi keeps their gems clean."

"...Basically allow humans to die to allow Witches to mature?" Kakashi asked, narrowing his eye at the girls.

"Yep. Though, Naruto-sensei and my group fight Witches and Familiars to protect people, even if we don't get a Grief Seed." Kazumi said, rubbing her tears away. "Though, again, I need to ask you... Can you help us find Naruto-sensei?!" Kazumi bowed while on her knees. "He was always helping us even when there was no reward! He's selfless guy who just wanted to help others like him!"

"I don't think you can call Uzumaki-sensei selfless, Kazumi." Umika sighed, making her friend blush. "Though, he is a good guy... In his own way. However, you two already saw not all Puella Magi are exactly 'good.' Though, the same with Witches, but finding a good one is really rare. The issue is now that Uzumaki-sensei is gone, more of those various Puella Magi are appearing and a good deal of Konoha Puella Magi have also disappeared without their markers appearing. That usually means a Gem Picker has stolen their Gems and disposed of the body..."

"But that Gem Picker didn't do it to Naruto-sensei! She admitted he was too strong for her and stopping her!" Kazumi got up, pointing at her friend.

"And that's way we need these guys' help." Umika sighed, tapping her nose as if correcting her glasses that were not there. "Uzumaki-sensei was a very powerful Puella Magi. Add the fact he is one hell of crazy-prepared conservative, there's no way another Puella Magi could take him out without anyone knowing."

"Uzumaki?... Conservative?" Iruka asked, remembering the prankster not at all holding back in his pranks.

"He's the only one I know who can take on a Witch without magic, just so he does not have to clean his gem later." Both Iruka and Kakashi paled at Kaoru. "He even uses normal weapons instead of his own to save on magic. That's what we mean as he is a conservative... When it came to his mouth, on the other hand, that is a different story."

"Indeed. The only time he hid it was being around other people that are not Puella Magi."

"Wait, what?" Kazumi looked at the two with confusion, matching the ninja and little girl.

"We followed him before out of curiosity. Who knew the one guy who easily kill Witches suck at being a ninja?" Umika smirked at that comment.

"Wasn't he pretending to be bad?" Iruka asked, now feeling some anger.

"Nope. He probably would be better if he wore his glasses." Kaoru chuckled, getting strange looks from the two ninja and Kazumi. "He wears contacts when not fighting Witches or dealing with Puella Magi issues, saying he was trying to get used to them. From what I saw, his depth perspective without his glasses is zero."

"Wait... Naruto had bad eye sight?" Iruka asked, remembering never seeing Naruto with glasses.

"Hai! Naruto-sensei always was wearing glasses when I saw him!" Kazumi cried out, "Why didn't you tell me about that, you two?!"

"He disappeared and it slipped our minds." Umika sighed, "However, we would very much like your help in finding Uzumaki-sensei. We owe him as he helped us before."

"We are going to need to inform the Hokage." Kakashi said, though understanding the look in the girl's eyes. All of them were filled with hurting and regret, just like he has felt during his life. "The Hokage cares deeply for Naruto like a grandson. However, I will tell you that he is alive." The three girls looked at Kakashi with shock. "However, where he is what Iruka and I are trying to find out, especially after seeing a girl disappear right before us, a Puella Magi who hit her limit from what you explained. Yet, she said something odd before her death. That televisions were linked to how her friends disappeared."

"Yeah... There's a rumor going around..." Umika said, nodding in agreement. "'Avoid the screens of televisions when the clock hits midnight on a rainy night or else you will be spirited away.' Uzumaki-sensei was in fact investigating such rumor and asked us about it a few days before his own disappearance. Many girls are now forming groups just to protect themselves from whatever it is that causing the disappearances. We don't mind you telling the Hokage about us. However, we want to keep this from spreading to other people of higher authority and the public. We still don't know if the culprit is human or not." Kakashi nodded, knowing well what the girl meant. He had seen it too many times with possibly talented ninja or those with special abilities. They were turned into human experiments or even killed because of people either wanting to get the same power or thinking it could destroy them.

**-Television-**

Sasuke and Naruto were walking through the flood plain from Junes. Yosuke and they had quite an earful from Chie before finding the damage that would be done to their wallets. However, they noticed Yukiko in a traditional pink kimono sitting under a gazebo while coming near it.

"Hm?" Yukiko noticed them as they turned to look at her. Both ran over, decided to get out of the rain for a moment. They sat down to rest right next to the girl. "Oh… Are you surprised to see me dressed this way? My parents sent me out on an errand." Yukiko sheepishly said to both boys. "Um… Are you both getting used to your new town and school?"

"Yeah… It's relaxing here compared to where we are from." Sasuke sighed with Naruto nodding in agreement. He was thankful to be out of the television and back to reality where things were sane. "In a way, it's been good for me and probably Naruto, too." 'Especially since you seem to fight monsters like that all the time!' Sasuke mentally added, still trying to get over what had happened.

"…I'm glad to hear that." Yukiko smiled as Sasuke was reminded of his mother with how Yukiko looked so much like her… But, then again, the classic appearance for most of the Uchiha was dark eyes and hair. Something about 'traditional beauty' as he heard some of the younger Uchiha men talking about when the clan was still alive. "It must be difficult, moving to a place you know nothing about… I've never been out of Inaba, so I wouldn't know what it's like to transfer to a new school. Oh! Are you getting along with Chie? I mean, I always leave early, so… Umm…"

"She's a real handful, but we are getting along." Sasuke said, remembering what he owed her for the heart attack the three of them gave her. 'At least she isn't like my fangirls! But, I should be thankful I was spared with the smallest bill!'

"… I see. She's always full of energy." Yukiko suddenly became quite cheerful. "Chie's very supportive, you know. It's always her who gives me the little extra push I need. We had homeroom together last year too, and I still remember how we'd cut class sometimes." Yukiko chimed before realizing the time. "Oh… I should get going. I need to make tomorrow's arrangements with our head chef. Our inn can't function without me right now." Yukiko stood up. "Um… I'll see you at school, then." Yukiko bowed before grabbing her umbrella and opening it to leave.

"See ya!" Sasuke waved as well as Naruto. "…We need to find that killer and your memories." Naruto looked at Sasuke, frowning. "This… reminds me of what happened to my clan. I was so useless then… But, now I can make a change and stop this killer where I couldn't stop my brother from killing my clan!" Sasuke sighed, calming down. "But... With also being here, I also saw I was letting revenge blind me of everyone around me. Or even who I am... In fact, the more I think about the massacre now, the more confused I am on the whole event and even who I am now."

"Revenge and hatred is a dangerous thing. It turns humans into monsters." Naruto sighed, catching Sasuke's attention. "Despair is always presence in humans... But, so is hope... As long as you don't let either blind you, you are human."

"That is quite right, young sir." Sasuke jumped up, suddenly seeing an old woman in mourning dress was before them, holding the hand of a blond hair child with two different color eyes. Naruto simply stood up, not even surprised by the two.

"Uh?... Hello, ma'am?" Sasuke asked while Naruto looked at the woman and child.

"I see... Seeing a being such as yourself here means the system here is indeed not pure." Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion. Sasuke then heard slight whispering to look back and see the old lady bend down to hear what the blond hair child was saying before coming back up.

"The young master asks what do you mean?" The old lady replied. "Though, by system, you mean how things work, correct?"

"Hai... Specifically Puella Magi. Do the gods and demons abandon them once they made their wish?" Sasuke's eyes widen when he saw a smirk on the little boy's face before he whispered again to the lady.

"The young master says no. Though, it mainly depends on the wish and the being. Some gods can easily become jealous if the wish is not made right and will abandon them. Though, demons would gladly come right up and snatch up a Puella Magi's trust to gain power as well." The old lady said with a chuckle. "Though, are you sure you are a Puella Magi? You seem very aware of your real surroundings for one."

"What do you mean by that?!" Sasuke shouted, holding out the umbrella he had like a sword. "I don't understand fully what a Puella Magi fully yet is, but I seen it with my own eyes that Naruto is one!"

The little boy whispered to the woman who knelled down to hear him. "The young master says just because he appears to be one does not mean he might be. Many Puella Magi are just like normal humans when it comes to their ability to perceive what is around them." The woman chuckled. "Though you already know that something is amiss as both as a chess player and chess piece. The young master waits to see how you deal with this since, unlike him, you are able to act directly as a piece along with indirectly as a player." The woman chuckled before both disappearing instantly in front of the two boys.

"…That was weird." Naruto said, snapping Sasuke out of his shock.

"What were they?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his head. 'I guess my life has gone from sort of normal to mind numbingly weird.'

"A demon, I think." Sasuke looked at Naruto with horror, knowing of demons from stories. "Not too sure since I haven't got as deep into the religious research of the world like I want to be. This world sure has a lot more deities and religious systems then our own. Though, we might not be seeking out just my memories and the killer."

"What?" Sasuke asked, a bit nervous at the fact they were talking about gods and demons, especially if he had just saw one. "What else is there to find than just your memories and the murderer?"

"Simple. I gained back some of my memories, I gained back an important one linking to what happened to us." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "And I at least got the answer with this grave marker. What pulled us in was a Witch, possibly fused with Shadows. However, the fact this marker is so twisted up... It may have not been a 'true' Witch."

"You lost me at the last part." Sasuke sighed, holding his head.

"Simple. You saw what my memories did to that Witch in the television. What I am saying is that Witch could actually be the Shadow of a Puella Magi from our side." Sasuke's eyes widen at the blond. "I remember I was investigating a rumor though I can't remember what it is. Several Puella Magi had disappeared from Konoha and rumors where flying around as to why."

"I guess there's more to that television world than we thought." Sasuke sighed before grabbing Naruto. "Come on. You better get back to the Dojima's before we make Nanako or Dojima-san worry." Naruto nodded as they began walking again. "But… Naruto… You got some of your memories back, but why haven't you return to your normal behavior I remember of?" Sasuke asked, confused as to what was his real normal behavior now.

"…I remember… How stupid I acted just so people were not afraid or crept out by me…" Sasuke blinked in shock as Naruto looked down. "I changed how I acted towards others with not wanting to be alone … The only time really showing my real character when in front of other Puella Magi... But...Sasuke is with me and not afraid of me!" Sasuke blushed in embarrassment with realizing he was sort of scared of Naruto, but only of his bad side. "I… don't want to return to the idiot I pretended to be just to try and get others to like me. I just want to be me." Naruto chimed.

"Yeah... I want to figure out also exactly who I am as well and my place in the world. I can't say I am the same before the massacre. But I don't what to be an avenger anymore either. I guess it took us ending up in another world and you to realize my own mistakes and finally begin to move again." Sasuke chuckled before both of them blink as they heard a voice.

**Thou art I… And I am thou… Thou has established a new bond…It brings thee closer to the truth… Thou salt be blessed when creating Persona of the Death/Aeon Arcana.**

Sasuke blinked as a blue card formed in front of him and landed in his hand to show it as a with a skull on the card before it disappeared. "Death Arcana? Nani?... What just happen?" Sasuke said with confusion.

"Aeon Arcana?" Sasuke blinked at Naruto before shaking his head.

"Let's get to the house… Today has been quite a mind fuck and now I am thoroughly not surprised by anything anymore." Sasuke groaned tiredly as Naruto followed him. "What's next? Aliens? Robots?"

**-Television-**

When they got into the house, Naruto went upstairs while Sasuke sat down near Nanoko and watch television with her for a good while, wanting to not think. With all that had happened, his brain needed a rest or else possibly turning to mush.

"Dad's late…" Nanako sighed, snapping Sasuke out of his trance and he noticed how late it was since the new came on.

_"Our next story is an update in our ongoing report on the bizarre murders occurring in Inaba. At around 7:00 A.M., local high school student Konishi Saki was found dead in Inaba's residential area. Since the body was positioned similarly to the last victim, and since Ms. Konishi was the one who discovered that body. Police are proceeding under the assumption that this may be a serial murder case related to the death of Yamano Mayumi. The coroner's report has established Ms. Konishi's time of death at around 1: 00 A.M. last night. The body went unnoticed until this morning as result of the heavy fog blanketing the area."_

"Another incident…"Nanako frowned with Sasuke noticing it."Dad won't be coming home tonight."

"I'll be here with you." Sasuke said trying to cheer her up. "When my father was still alive, he worked late a lot as well."

"Yeah… I'm okay..." Nanako sounded disappointed. "That's how it goes. He's a detective, so he's really busy." Nanako smiled at Sasuke. "Can you help me do some stuff around the house?"

'She seems reliable… Was I like that when I was a kid?' Sasuke thought while nodding at her before the news changed subject and showed an inn.

_"Amagi Inn, located upstream of Samegawa River, is the town's oldest historical landmark. Vacationers are known to travel surprising distances in order to visit its open-air, radium-rich hot springs."_ The image turned to a reporter.

_"After the incident with Ms. Yamano, the manager has stepped aside, leaving her daughter Yukiko to fill her shoes."_ Sasuke was shocked to see Yukiko on the television, wearing the kimono he saw her wearing earlier. _"In other words, she's a manager who's still in high school. Now that has a nice ring to it… Let's see if we can interview her. Excuse me!"_

_"Hm? Um… Are you speaking to me?"_ Yukiko asked on the television.

_"We've heard that you're the new manager. Is it true you're still in high school_?" The reported excitedly asked.

_"Oh, well, I'm only filling in temporarily_…" Yukiko looked down, seeming embarrassed.

_"Someday, though… That aside, wow! You're looking gorgeous in that kimono. You must have a lot of male visitors."_

_"Huh? No, um.."_ Yukiko looked away, making Sasuke annoyed as he realized the reporter was making her uneasy. He knows all too well how it felt from his fangirls. The report kept on rumbling and getting off subject.

"This is boring." Nanako groaned, Sasuke agreeing while wondering how the heck people would be so interested in digging into someone's life. "Oh, I need to do the dishes." Nanako stood up, which reminded Sasuke he hadn't ate yet.

"Let me help. I'll get something for Naruto and me to eat once we finish." Sasuke got up as well and followed Nanako into the kitchen. It was the least he could do since Naruto and he were freeloading. Especially since Naruto seemed to have keeping the house clean and most of the cooking under control.

"…You think something may appear on the Midnight Channel tonight?" Sasuke asked, eating some noodles he warmed up for Naruto and him to eat. Naruto was on a computer Dojima set up in their bedroom. He looked at the clock to see it getting close to nine.

"…Possibly." Naruto mumbled, focus on what he was doing.

"What are you doing anyways?" Ssauke asked, looking over Naruto's shoulder and nearly gagging on the noodles. "Naruto? How you get these?" Sasuke hissed, seeing police documents and other such things he knew from being the son of the man that was Konoha's Military Police Force's captain.

"… I hacked into the police network." Sasuke cocked his head, confused. "Basically, I stole it… Computers are interesting and I quickly discover how to get information through my cell phone and the computer. Since we will be investigating the murders, we need information." Naruto sighed before putting all the information away into a zipped up folder and pulled up something else on the computer. "I will also begin investigating on Shadows and Personas as there are no way we are the only ones with such powers."

"Do you think that is true?" Sasuke sighed, rubbing is head from the headache.

"You're saying that to the guy who has magic powers and knows others who do as well.. And I know I had Alice before we were brought into the television... But I cannot remember how long." Sasuke nodded before slumping with fatigue, his mind barely registering what Naruto told him. "You're probably feeling fatigue from that curse from earlier. Even though it has been cleaned from your body, I expected to see some negative effects. I will stay up to watch the Midnight Channel. It is best you rest to recover."

"Yeah." Sasuke groaned, deciding to hit the sack. "Wake me up early tomorrow to take a shower..." Sasuke did not even take off his school uniform as he instantly went to sleep with hitting the futon.

"I understand." Naruto sighed, holding out his hand for his Soul Gem to come out. "Though, this is different, it is convenient." Naruto chimed as a wire suddenly grew out of the card metal base and turned into a USB outlet which he plugged into the computer. "However, this world's weapons are quite amazing. And, bonus, they have plenty of pictures of said weapons." Naruto chimed with a grin, the computer screen changing and becoming a different interface while he used the internet browser to find photos of military equipment and weapons. All the while another program was seemingly running, making copies of the photos which ended up in another program which began making 3-D models of weapons and such before storing them away.

After a few hours, Naruto stood up with the computer turned off and his Soul Gem turned back into a bracelet. He walked over to the television which had a weather announcement about abnormal fog, which the blond took note it has been around for a few years. He looked at Sasuke to see him still fast asleep. Right when the female announcer said it was midnight, Naruto turned it off and the blank screen suddenly turned on. He noticed a silhouette on the screen, but it was too fuzzy for him to see well… The best he could make out was it looked human in figure and seemed to be wearing a kimono. Naruto had an idea and put his hand on the television for his hand to go through and the image disappeared. He pulled it out only to find the image gone.

"I see... So, I was right and this is going to escalate." Naruto said drawing and writing notes in his diary. "…" Naruto looked at his notes and pictures, drawings of the television world and portraits of the two victims of the television world so far… As well as a good sketch of the silhouette on the screen which as sort of a blob, but with enough of an outline to show it was possibly a person wearing a kimono."…Kimono… Er... Um... Inn-chan?" Naruto mumbled before seeing Sasuke having laid into his bed. "…Nah… There are plenty of ladies here who also wear kimonos. If I single one out now without proper evidence, I could end up costing someone's life... And it seems I am horrible with names." Naruto sighed, closing the book before hiding it under the small couch in the room and grabbing his late night dinner, realizing he forgot to eat since he had been so busy getting the information Sasuke and the others need to help with their investigation... Along with his own needs as a Puella Magi.

* * *

Endnote: And that's a wrap till next time. And, if you are wondering, yes, demons and gods are going to still be important to this story like it was in the old version. I am just going about it in a different way.


	7. Ch 7: Is Life Not As Cruel?

Authornote-I lucked out on getting this chapter up faster than expected. My main proofreaders are in college, though one had a break and was able to proofread for me. For those who keep looking back to Persona: Innocent Fate for fun rereading, I will be moving it to another account I have this weekend since I have the rewrite up and moving my active stories from that account to this one. The other ones will appear here once I have their next chapter done. I am currently trying to figure out a schedule so I can keep at least a loose releasing schedule for my fanfiction, but I can't promise it will steady anytime soon since I do need to earn enough of an income to cover my living costs and gain a savings.

Though, starting this chapter and onwards, Naruto's story will begin to emerge and things are going to begin making sense a little, including the Puella Magi... However, I realized I missed something in my disclaimer, but I will just leave it out till it is glaringly obvious since my disclaimer still covers it. However, I hope you all like this chapter... Oh! Also, the reason this fic is PG-17 is going to start showing up with this chapter. Like my warning in my summary, no yaoi... Implied?... Maybe for those who know what I mean with this crossover.

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto, Persona 4 or any Shin Megumi Tensei, Megumi Tensei, or other Persona series. I also do not owe anything of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series. If I owned any of these, I would not be working a job right now and instead be working fully on personal projects full-time.

* * *

Ch. 7 "Is Life Not As Cruel?"

Naruto opens his eyes for it to be filled with blue velvet. He found himself sitting before the same man and woman he saw with Sasuke just before waking up in Inaba's hospital. He calmly nodded at the two denizens of the place before looking to his side. He saw Sasuke somewhat confused and bewildered at where he was.

"Welcome." Igor greeted with a grin. "Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams. And so we meet again."

"Dreams?" Sasuke asked, confused. Naruto simply nodded, understanding the concept from what he heard last time. He remembered the man mentioning this place was between matter and mind.

"This is a space that only those who have, in one way or another, entered a contract may enter." Margaret explained, opening her book. "In your daily life, you subconsciously heard the call to awaken, and you chose to follow the destiny of your inner voice thereby enacting your glorious awakening to your power."

"So... I am a Puella Magi, too?" Sasuke asked, Naruto shaking his head at the confusion Sasuke was expressing.

"They are referring to a different power, Sasuke-chan." Sasuke jumped, looking at the blond with realizing he was there to. "Though... I don't remember what exactly it is."

"You shall remember with time. You had strayed off the path some and only now just returning, my old guest." Now both boys were looking at Igor with interest. "Hold on to this." Two balls of light appeared before them and produced an old fashion blue key when it landed in their hands. "From this night forth, you are our guests in this Velvet Room. A new one whose path has just begun and one who once here before till his journey shifted a while and only now connecting back to the original path."

"You... been here before?" Sasuke asked while Naruto had his hand on his chin, pondering. The Velvet Room did indeed seem familiar to him as well as Igor, but not Margaret. Also, the room seemed different, though he could not understand why as he did not remember any of this before ending up in Inaba.

"I don't know... I don't remember." Naruto said, biting his lip slightly with wondering exactly why this was important to him and worried him with as to why he could not remember.

"Your destiny will require you to hone your power, and for that, you two will inevitably require our help. There is but one price for this assistance..."

"..." Naruto noticed Sasuke gulping and seemingly nervous. 'Probably because of the demon yesterday.' Naruto thought, though found himself oddly comfortable in this situation.

"You must abide by your contract and assume responsibility for all decisions you may make." Sasuke blinked in shocked while Naruto simply smiled.

"Like... my choice to find Naruto's memories and the investigation?" Sasuke asked while Igor nodded. "Then I understand... I thought this was going to be like a demon's deal." Sasuke patted his chest, calming down.

"Nose-chan, you already know my answer as it seemed I was here before." Naruto looked at Sasuke with confusion as the boy burst into laughter which seemingly did not faze either Igor or Margaret. "I accept whatever I done and will do without a shred of regret."

"Very well." Igor chimed, not even batting an eye at the nickname Naruto used. "The Persona you have acquired," Both boys again focused on Igor with great attention. "It is a side of you that shows itself when you face the world around you. Perhaps you can think of it as... a facade of determination you wear to face various difficulties in life. Your Persona abilities, however, are that of being very special. For our new guest, it is of the Wild Card. Our old guest's abilities, the Querent Card and Signigicator Card, are just as special for different reasons. All three are like the number zero... Empty, yet holding infinite potential within itself."

"Empty?" Sasuke asked, though not of confusion. Naruto noticed a hint of sadness in Sasuke's voice.

"The Persona ability is the power to control one's own heart... And the heart is strengthened through bonds. As you form bonds by becoming involved with others, you own Social Links will gradually develop. For my old guest, old Social Links you have made with lead into new ones. The power of these Social Links is what will determine your Persona's abilities."

"I don't get it." Sasuke sighed with his head dropping. Naruto, however, was actually understanding it quite well... Though, this was probably his second time hearing it. Though, he could not remember "what" a Social Link was.

"Social Links are necessary for more than strengthening your Persona." Margaret answered, holding up her hand. "At times, they will help light the way to the truth you are searching for."

"Where will your awakened powers of the cards take you?" Igor chuckled in delight. "I look forward to traveling the road of your destiny together. 'Til we meet again..."

"Thank you... I think..." Naruto bowed as his vision shifted to black. He opened his eyes, finding himself waking up in the room he was sharing with Sasuke. 'So, if that place is indeed the border of mind and reality, then it is best to say those two are supernatural beings.'

"Agh... I'm sore..." Naruto looked at Sasuke who was waking.

"Good morning, Sasuke-chan." Naruto said as Sasuke faced Naruto... And realizing Naruto was laying in the same bed with him.

"AAAAAAGH!" Nanako and Dojima jumped with hearing Sasuke scream and hearing a loud crash from the room above.

"A-Are they okay?" Nanako asked, hearing a commotion coming from above and ready to get up to stop it.

"Leave them be." Ryotaro chuckled, realizing what was possibly happening. "I think they are becoming good friends." His daughter looked at him strangely as he ate his breakfast. 'It's good to see they are becoming able to relax some. It might do them some good.'

"Dammit, Naruto! Why the hell were you in my bed?!" Sasuke hissed as both of them were walking to school, Naruto sporting a black eye behind his glasses as well as a bruised cheek.

"Because I couldn't get my futon out due to you sleeping before could get it out." Naruto stated in a matter of fact, making Sasuke flinched in fear of bringing out the Horns of Doom. "Hm? What's wrong?"

"Uh... I hit you even though it was my fault..." Sasuke sheepishly said, hoping to avoid death.

"It's not. You needed the sleep. I just did not realize you would set up your futon where I could not get mine out." Naruto said, though still confused by Sasuke's behavior. "What is wrong?"

"Heh heh... Just... Yesterday, you seemed really... Er... Mad... And..." Naruto's eyes widen in realization of what Sasuke meant.

"Oh... Yeah..." Naruto slightly blushed while looking away. "Sorry about that... It takes a lot to get me really angry like that."

"Really?" Sasuke asked, remembering how Naruto was... And then remembering what Naruto said yesterday. "That's right... The way you acted at the academy was a mask."

"No... It wasn't." Sasuke looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow. "What I did was simply held back my full personality and stressed parts that seemed would possibly help me get friends... Though, I guess it only made things worse... Though, when it comes to my anger, I do have a pretty good control over it. It's just very hard for me to lose it."

"Oh... I guess you just seem angry a lot more so out of your own annoyance than actual anger." Sasuke got an odd look from Naruto before they hear a ringing from behind.

"Yo!" Both turned to find Yosuke who just stopped his bike and got off in front of them. "You saw what was on last night, right?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow before seeing Naruto nod.

"You mean the Midnight Channel?" Yosuke nodded. "I missed it with sleeping... What happened yesterday knocked me out."

"No prob. I understand the feeling." Yosuke groaned, his own body slightly aching. "I couldn't tell who it was, but if someone's showing up on the TV, we can't ignore it. Let's go check it out after school. Maybe Teddie can tell us something."

"I understand." Sasuke said, though now kind of regretting sleeping through midnight.

"If it turns out someone was thrown in again, there really might be a culprit behind all this..." Yosuke looked down, remembering his sempai. "Even if it is something about that place that's killing the victims... If someone's using that world as a weapon, that's unforgivable. We need to find the culprit... No matter what it takes!" Sasuke nodded before noticing the determination in Yosuke's eyes. "There's no way the police can do it... Who'd believe that the murderer kills people by throwing them into the TV?"

"Yeah. It has to be us. We have the abilities to solve this." Sasuke said, smiling with realizing in fact they were in a Catch 22 with the police.

"We also may be able to find a way to get the evidence needed to convict the killer." Naruto said, making both sweat with realizing the issue of trying to catch a killer using a television to kill. "Since what we are dealing with is not of 'normal' human standards, proving certain things like the Midnight Channel and the world in the television will be crucial."

"Hehe... Cool." Yosuke sheepishly laughed off Naruto's little speech. 'What is he? A magical detective boy?' "It's reassuring to hear someone else say it." Sasuke nodded with understanding as he also now felt a bit better knowing he had backup. "You know, I tried sticking my head in the TV last night, the way you did, and it actually worked!... Though I saw a floating hand..." Yosuke said, slightly pale.

"That was mine, Headphone-chan." Yosuke looked at Naruto. "I put my hand through the television to see if the image would stay afterward."

"Yeah... Thanks for the heart attack." Yosuke glared at Naruto though Sasuke was wide-eyed with shock with what Yosuke said before the floating hand comment. "However, I think I can do that now because I have the same power... Persona, wasn't it?"

"Yes... Have you heard of the Velvet Room?" Sasuke asked, only seeing confusion in Yosuke's eyes. "Nevermind." Yosuke nodded, deciding it was just something he would either figure out later or something he shouldn't add into learning.

"Could be that we got this gift from someone specifically so we could solve the case." Yosuke then sighed while dropping his head. "Then again, you managed to go inside the TV and get your Persona first... I feel like, as long as you two are with me, I can find the culprit and crack this case... Well, let's do our best!" Yosuke winked with a friendly smile. He held out his hand which Sasuke shook, eyeing Naruto in case he grabbed it like last time before making Naruto shake as well.

'Though, Yosuke is better than me... Even with losing Saki-senpai and so much mystery and all that has happened, he is still trying to move on... Unlike me for the past four years.' Sasuke thought, sensing an odd feeling he never felt before till being stuck in Inaba with Naruto. A breaking like sound alerted him and he noticed Naruto also heard the same sound.

**Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... It brings thee closer to the truth...Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana.**

'Nani?' Sasuke thought before remembering Igor's words from this morning. '"The Persona ability is the power to control one's own heart... And the heart is strengthened through bonds. As you form bonds by becoming involved with others, your own Social Links will gradually develop. The power of these Social Links is what will determine your Persona's abilities."' Sasuke let out a sigh. 'So... Social Links... Is this bond with Yosike what Igor was talking about?... As well as the one I made yesterday with Naruto?'

"Hey... Are you alright?" Yosuke asked, confused to why the two were concentrating so hard.

"Nothing... I'll explain later." Sasuke sighed, wondering what exactly are his new abilities.

"Alright! Time to get to school!" Yosuke chimed, getting on his bike and speeding off. However, both Naruto and Sasuke flinched with seeing him hit a bump and seemingly flip... Only for Yosuke to disappear and his bike hit the ground with him nowhere in sight.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke ran over to the bike as Naruto shook his head and walk over to it. "Where the hell he gone?!"

"He's at the school..." Sasuke looked at Naruto confusedly. "I can sense you guys far easier than normal people probably due to your Persona, but not as good as Witches or other Puella Magi... But, then again, I'm pretty sure he's the only student who could be on top of the school at this moment." Sasuke sweated at the blond. "It seems with awakening your Persona, you also gain abilities a normal human cannot have... I guess Headphone-chan won't need his bike anymore since he now has the ability akin to teleportation."

"Naruto... You're way too used to this..." Sasuke sighed, shaking his head at the blond while lifting the bike up.

"Of course. My job involves using magic to defeat beings that use magic to kill people while deluding itself within a world of its own creation. Though, I believe we best figure out a way to train Headphone-chan's and your new abilities as I don't think Headphone-chan will be as lucky as landing on the school roof next time." Sasuke nodded with a gulp at what Naruto meant.

'But... How can I train if I don't even know what my power is?! Do you?!' Sasuke thought, pondering exactly what he has gotten himself into as Naruto and he walked to school with Yosuke's bike.

**-Television-**

"Ooooow." Yosuke groaned, rubbing his nose where now a bandage was at. "I thought chain link fencing was suppose to bend when something hits it."

"It is possibly our 'speed' was the issue. You were going fast than light... I think..." Naruto said as Sasuke and Yosuke were talking while waiting for class to start.

"Dude... Are you trying to be funny?" Yosuke glared at the blond.

"No. Seriously. From what you said, your ab-" Naruto stopped when the door slammed opened to exposed a panicking Chie. She ran into the room and to the three boys.

"Chie!... Um... About yesterday..." Yosuke tried to say while Chie looked around frankly.

"Never mind that. Is Yukiko still not here?" Chie asked, her voice slightly wavering as she looked stressed.

"Huh? Y-Yukiko-san? Uh... No?" Yosuke asked, kind of shocked what Chie's statement. "At least, I haven't seen her today."

"Oh man... What should I do?... Hey, is that stuff you were talking about for real?" Chie asked, seemingly worried. "You know... All that about how people showing up on the Midnight Channel is related to that other world.

"We... Were just talking about that." Yosuke sighed, referring to his new ability. "We're thinking of checking it out later-"

"The person on TV yesterday... I think it was Yukiko." Chie announced, shocking Yosuke and Sasuke.

"That kimono looked like the one she wears at the inn, and she wore it during that interview a few days too. I got worried, so I emailed her last night, but she hasn't responded... I called her earlier in the evening thought, and she said she'd be at school today." Chie's eyes began to water up. "I-I..."

"Calm down." Yosuke said while putting his hand on her should. "We get the picture. An you still haven't heard from her?

"No..." Chie looked downed, very worried.

"If indeed Inn-chan is in that world, she could be in grave danger." All three looked at Naruto. "We discovered the killer is using that world to kill his victims by throwing them into the television. Once inside the television, the person's Shadow will come out and taunt the host till he denies it and go berserk. It will kill the host. Though, there are also Witches there which kill anything for its life force." Naruto said, "Also, we proved that the Midnight Channel was not a one-time deal and it will be possibly showing who is inside the television."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chie asked, her mouth slightly a gap at the straight to the point summary. "Wait, are you saying... Yukiko was thrown in there?!"

"It is a possibility." Yosuke and Sasuke glared at Naruto with seeing Chie's face twist with horror. "However, due to the lack of details on the television, it is impossible to tell if it is Inn-chan."

"W-We don't know yet for sure." Yosuke said, trying to calm Chie down as Naruto was not helping. "We should check to see if she's safe first. Give her another call." Yosuke suggested, though really hoping Chie was not right. Chie nodded and used speed dial to make the call.

"No good... Her voicemail picked up..." Chie said, now pale with worry. "S-She's not answering."

"Are you serious...? Then is Yukiko-san inside that place...?" Yosuke said, thinking.

"I don't thi-"

"S-Stop it!" Chie barely kept herself from screaming, glaring at Yosuke and Naruto. "Something must've come up, like an errand or something..." Both Yosuke and Sasuke nodded in agreement. "Oh, or she might be helping at the inn... She wouldn't be able to answer her cell if that it..."

"Yeah, but would she skip school for that?" Yosuke pointed out, making Chie panic again.

"W-Well, I'll give the inn a call... Um... I've got the number here somewhere." Chie found the number and hit it. "C'mon, Yukiko... Pick up..." Her eyes widen while the answered. "Oh, is this Yukiko?! Thank god, she's there! Uh-huh... Uh-huh, I see... Ah, uh. Nah. It was nothing, haha. I'll email you again later..." Chie hanged up her cell phone with a big sigh of relief. "She was over at the inn. She said they had a big group reservation and she had to help out. Yeah... Now that I think about it, this has happened before, too. At least once a year. She said she'll be at the inn tomorrow, too." Chie's face of sweet relief turned to anger aimed right at Naruto and Yosuke, more so Yosuke. "Oh, for crying out loud, Yosuke! Uzumaki! You two got me worried over nothing! She was totally fine! And you were all, 'Is Yukiko-san inside that place...?' Hmph..."

"S-Sorry." Yosuke stepped back a little. "But there is a reason we thought that."

"Oh yeah? What?" Chie asked with a sneer.

"Well... We thought people show up on the Midnight Channel because they're already over in that world. I mean, it makes sense, right? People show up on TV because they're inside the TV. But Yukiko-san's still here, in our world. We might want to see what this is about."

"However, who we saw might not be that girl." The three looked back at Naruto. "The only clear thing we could see was it was a figure wearing a kimono. I am not ruling out guys as some do look feminine in a kimono." Chie and Yosuke sweated, realizing the possibility. "However, if the inn she works at is a traditional one... Then, it might be a high probability who we are seeing is possibly from the same place. From what I seen, not many people here wear kimono's all the time. If we focus on one person with so little information at the moment, we could end up failing to protect the real target."

"I see." Yosuke sighed, understanding what Naruto meant. "Alright, let's meet up at Junes after school." Yosuke said with a frown, remembering yesterday.

"And I also claim reserve on both your lunch breaks today, Sasuke-chan, Headphone-chan." Yosuke glared at Naruto while Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I have some things to explain and I can't do it as school has begun." Yosuke, Chie, and Sasuke rushed to their seats with seeing Morooka coming into the room and not wanting to deal with him today.

**-Television-**

"So, what do you want to talk about, Gatling Gun?" Yosuke sighed, munching on his lunch of a sandwich and some rice balls. He was actually staring at the well made bentos which Sasuke and Naruto had... Which were quite nice and neat, but very girly with fine details like hotdog octopuses and even some food pieces looking like flowers. "Nice lunches. Who made them?" Yosuke teased, expecting the two were getting a following of girls.

"Naruto..." Sasuke sighed, a bit embarrassed Naruto was one heck of a cook compared to him. Though, Sasuke also discovered Naruto's love of cute things including making cute bentos."He's been doing most of the cooking and cleaning at Dojima's along with Nanako-chan."

"Seriously?" Yosuke said with some shock, "But, then again, since you seem to be a magical boy from one of those magical girl anime, I shouldn't be surprised you're a bit girly."

"What is wrong if I like things akin to girls? Everyone has a right to be their own self." Naruto said, not even bothered. "However, my taste aside, we have at least confirmed with Headphone-chan's little show this morning that our Persona gives us abilities outside normal human abilities."

"Yeah. Thanks for reminding me." Yosuke groaned, his nose aching with remembering his face plant right into the fence on the roof they were currently sitting on for privacy. "So, why do we need this meeting during lunch? Weren't we going to check out the TV world after school?"

"That the reason is I want to speak to you both." Sasuke looked at Naruto with confusion. "We know that world is dangerous due to two types of threats: Shadows and Witches."

"Yeah... What are those?" Yosuke groaned with a frown. "Those were some freaky monsters... Even the one my Shadow turned into."

"Sadly, I do not have much on Shadows. I will be looking online as it seems it is a power seen in both our worlds, but it is hidden much like the Puella Magi system." Both boys looked at Naruto with shock. "However, Witches, I do know about. At least within my technical memory and few memories I have gotten back."

"Wait, so you fought Witches before? Like outside the television?" Sasuke asked while Yosuke nearly choked on his food with realizing what Sasuke meant. He did NOT want to face another Witch, especially in the real world.

"Correct." Naruto said, "I am not going into detail though."

"What?! Serious?!" Yosuke shouted in anger, "What if we-"

"When it comes to Witches, you are to let me deal with them." Both looked at Naruto with shock. "Even... Though I can't explain why, I can sense that something bad happens when it comes to Personas and Witches fighting unless done right... But, I can't remember that right way."

"Wait... You had your Persona before the television?" Yosuke asked, realizing what the blond was saying.

"Yes... Though, all of my Persona knowledge and memories are gone... I can't even remember how to summon Alice as I know what you do is not how I summon her... Probably because I at least never had to enter the television before the last few days... I think..." Naruto bit his thumb, somewhat frustrated. "In a way, the knowledge I do pertain is mostly worthless to this investigation as if I had the Persona stuff, then we would at least be able to probably do a much better strategy than the ones I have for Puella Magi and Witches."

"But, that also makes you a suspect!" Yosuke growled, anger growing inside him. "You're the only one who has a way to teleport around and can push-"

"Yosuke!" Sasuke snapped Yosuke out of his rant. "Naruto didn't do it. In fact, we were just released from the hospital the day the reporter was possibly pushed into the television..." Yosuke looked at Sasuke with shock before looking away in regret. "But, what is that teleporting ability, Naruto? You could help Yosuke control his." Sasuke smirked while Yosuke squirmed at the idea of Naruto being his teacher before his eyes widen. 'Wait... Naruto can teleport... So... Could he have done the murder?' Sasuke pondered for a second, remembering him at least doing it once on that day before his eyes.

"It's not teleportation." Both looked at Naruto. "...Uh... Kami, I have no idea how to explain it... Wait, I do due to the tech here!" Naruto chimed, his eyes lighting up with joy. "And a name for it! Cut, Copy, Paste!" Naruto had his hand up with a finger pointing up with a octo-dog in his mouth.

"...Cut, Copy, and Paste?" Both looked at him while sweating at his odd pose and outburst. "Isn't that terms used to copy text on computers or remove it and paste it elsewhere in a document or such?... For the name of your ability, that sucks."

"A work in progress then as it still has no official name." Naruto sighed, seemingly quite disappointed, "But, that's the gist of my Puella Magi ability. Except, I don't do with just text, I can do it to anything." Now the two boys were looking at him with interest. "With my Persona abilities that Nose-chan reminded me of, it makes it easy to use my ability without causing fallacies. Cut, Copy, Paste is not a strong magic, but is very useful when used correctly to form paradoxes."

"Fallacies? Paradoxes?" Sasuke asked, curious of this. "Isn't a paradox something that are two opposites, but true? And isn't fallacy a bigger word for lie?"

"Correct, though fallacy is a proper term for when a 'theory' or 'rule' becomes false. With my ability, I can cut out parts of choices from past or future and change them around. In a sense, it's kind of cheap form akin to time manipulation, but time is still moving. All I am doing is 'layering' the 'strips' or 'lines' of time over each other. Hence, my power creates paradoxes and sometimes fallacies instead of really 'messing' with time. If a paradox turns into a fallacy, it ends in several ways, but most common is the object the paradox is at disappears or dies if it is organic."

"Isn't that cruel?" Yosuke asked, realizing even though confusing, he understood the last part.

"Is life not as cruel?" Naruto said while looking up at the clouds. "Humans tend to be blind of how crude and painful reality is. Hence some can't take it once they realize it. However, I try not to use it on organic things unless it is myself. However, because of this, time moves much longer for me as I am constantly using the power now and see all those stripes together. Though, I am thankful for it as it has made dealing with the Witches here easier on me... Witch hunting takes a lot of time and with my ability, it makes it so I can still have a social life as others are not as lucky." Naruto hummed, his chop sticks in his mouth while munching on some rice.

"But... Seriously... The mind rape..." Yosuke groaned, remembering what he saw yesterday. "You are living through that every day...Disappearing and fighting those things without us knowing in the television?"

"No. They are here, too." Naruto sighed before taking a sip of his drink, not worried at all. " However, the Witches are oddly docile till someone like me goes by and not going after normal people, even with so many here being prefect targets. Usually, with how many I found so far, this place should be a hotspot for murder and suicides." Both boy's eyes widen in horror. "However, in this case, Inaba is being spared the side effects of a Witch infestation for some reason which might actually be relating to the Midnight Channel and this other world. However, if those Witches change they could become much more of a problem then our murderer. Which is why I want to solve both issues while having the chance to do so. I also already set up to bring back up by spreading a rumor on the internet to bring in other Puella Magi to this area as whatever might be attacting the Witches is also blocking anyone from becoming Puella Magi here. Luckily, due to their docile nature till provoke by the presence of a Puella Magi, it makes it easier to locate them and take them out before they cause any issues. This will be even more so once more Puella Magi begin to come here, so you guys can focus more on the other world and the investigation." Naruto chimed, taking a bite out of his last of his hot dog octopuses. "However, if we plan to take on saving people from the television... Then we are going to need a strategy."

"Why? I mean, can't we just fight Shadows and Witches with our Persona?" Yosuke asked while Sasuke also pondered the issue Naruto meant. Sure, it was smart to have a plan, but how can you plan when you don't even know your own abilities. That and why he was so focused on keeping them from fighting Witches.

"Just because you how power does not mean you are almighty." Naruto explained, adjusting his glasses. "Even with Personas, we have also our own abilities. We also have to deal with the fact we don't know much about our own abilities. I remember a good bit of my Puella Magi abilities, but only little of my Persona ones."

"So, how long have you had one?" Yosuke asked, curious of the blond.

"No clue..." Sasuke and Yosuke looked at Naruto with shocked. "Alice... Has been with me for a while... That I can remember and her unique abilities...But, for some reason, how I use all her abilities is missing from my head along with the memories. Even how to summon her... That was why I was relieved to see her. She changed a bit, but she was still Alice... Still me..." Naruto gripped his head, biting his lip in frustration at not being able to remember. "I can't even remember anything on possibly Shadows, either, hence I can't said if I ever faced a Shadow or not before being here." Sasuke and Yosuke looked at Naruto who was now looking at his feet. "...The only thing in my technical memory I can remember about Persona is everyone has the potential to have one, but very few can actually use them... It's even rarer to find a Puella Magi that can use one."

"Oh..." Yosuke looked down, realizing Naruto was saying the truth. "So, you really did loss your memories in that world..."

"Don't worry, Naruto. If we keep exploring the television, we should find them." Sasuke said, trying to lighten the mood. 'But, how powerful are you?'

"It is not my memories that worry me. It's the Witches that are in the other world. You seen what happened yesterday." Both boys gulped, remembering Sasuke being infected with such a curse. "Even Puella Magi like myself are dirtied by them, though we have a means to keep it in one place instead of letting it spread till a Grief Seed can be used to clean it. However, it seems the fog keeps Soul Gems from being cleaned, hence why I am asking you let me deal with them there. The least inflicted amount us from curses, the more a Grief Seed can clean."

"So, you are also inflicted?" Sasuke asked, realizing what Naruto did.

"Hai." Naruto flipped his wrist for his card like Soul Gem to appear. He showed the gem part which made Sasuke's and Yosuke's eyes widen as it was darker than they remembered. "As a Puella Magi uses magic and fights Witches, their gems get darker. The darker the gem becomes, the harder it is to use magic and it is weaker. Once a Puella Magi hits their limit back in the world Sasuke and I knew, they will die and disappear."

"...Seriously?" Yosuke asked, somewhat paled at the thought of his body disappearing and no one ever knowing about. "What kind of screwed up logic is that?"

"The Law of Cycles." Naruto said in a matter of fact tone. "Not that you two need to know about it. Think of it as a Puella Magi's religion, only we know the deities in it is real." Both boys recoiled in horror with seeing another black cage thing like they saw yesterday in Naruto's hand, but this one was not bent at all or damaged. "The only known way to clean a Soul Gem is with a Grief Seed. Not all Witches drop one, so learning to properly conserve magic to keep the curse input down is a must. For myself, I use a combination of not using magic when I can handle a Witch without it and then using magic for harder Witches. Because I don't use magic as much, I am able to get a stock pile of Grief Seed for in case I hit a time where I need to use a lot of magic. That also make it easy for me to fight in the other world even with the fact it seems to prevent Soul Gems from being cleansed while inside and be able to use those Grief Seeds I find there for solely cleaning any inflicts to you guys."

"So the bombs are..." Sasuke gasped with realizing Naruto's bomb skills.

"Correct. They are quite effect against Witches if used correctly. I use various ones depending on the Witch as even with my two Persona abilities to assist me in indentifying their abilities and such, they are very dangers as they are unpredictable as they are akin to those who lost their minds even. Though, I won't get into that now since I will be the one dealing with them."

"So, how do we do it? Kind of hard to make a plan with so many questions." Yosuke rolled his eyes with the scoff, remembering what the others did. He just had to make the card appear and smash the card to summon Jiraiya. The Persona could fight for them.

"Simple. We form a bare bones party." Naruto chuckled with Yosuke glaring at him.

"Bare bones?... Party?" Sasuke asked, completely confused.

"Sorry. Term we Puella Magi used. It's a rough party made to assess each other's abilities while giving support to each other if something happens. Since Bear-chan can't be helpful in combat, he will be our field monitor. A field monitor keeps an eye out on the field of the enemies and allies position to give back constant information needed to properly fight. Since I know my abilities and they are mostly supportive, I will be mainly support. I will be still fighting with you, but keeping some distance from you two as from what I seen, you two are more close-range combatants."

"Yes... Please... I rather not be blown up." Yosuke groaned, remembering the boy's bombs. "But, what of my teleporting ability? It might be useful?"

Naruto thought for a minute before his eyes widen. "One second." Naruto held up his hand while making an circle with two of his fingers and looking through it at Yosuke. "Oh! So, this was how I used Analyze. It was in my head, but I just couldn't figure it out from what I remember. A bit awkward, but it works." Both Sasuke and Yosuke sweated at the blond. "Your ability is known as Evade Card...It is indeed from your Persona as that's where I am seeing it at."

"Evade Card?" Yosuke sounded disappointed, "That's kind of a lame name."

"Well, it's not teleportation. Instead, it just looks like it. It seems with Persona, one's limiters to their bodies is remove, but how they work depends on the Persona. With Headphone-chan, his are shifted so much to speed he can literally move at the speed of light, hence the appearance of teleportation this morning. But, with the cost to his defense with the bones and muscle shifting for the speed, not strength. However, if you train your ability right, you can be a glass cannon."

"A glass cannon?" Sasuke asked, both boys not liking the sound of it.

"Sorry. It's a game saying in this world, but the Puella Magi in Sasuke's and my world seem to use some for the same terms for our own uses. It's the same meaning in both worlds. It is a person with either an medium to high damage output, but have really sorry defense. The way to work a glass cannon in a party is either protect it with a tank, someone with defense focused abilities, or make them fast enough to keep moving and avoid the attacker's attacks. Yosuke's case is already made to be a rogue glass cannon or a glass cannon focused on evading others attacks and spamming attacks through attack speed for damage output."

"I see..." Yosuke looked at Sasuke, though Yosuke wondered if the blond was a gaming otaku as much of what he was saying sounded like it and going over his head. "This is what you mean by having a strategy. As we learn our weaknesses and strengths, we can use them to our advantages to keep the enemy from exploiting our weaknesses. I always went against teamwork exercises with thinking others would slow me down, but I never thought of it that way."

"Yeah. They don't exactly explain those details at the academy from what memories I do have. Probably because party formation and such is something you can only learn through real combat experience." Naruto sighed as the two watched him put the Grief Seed to his gem and watched as a dark gas came from it. "Hence why I became a ninja. I have the experience and Witches will appear in areas I might be deployed to. They set themselves in areas that make it easier for them to get prey like areas people go for suicide and more 'accidents' are prone to happen. It just depends on the Witch and their 'rules' they follow for what victims they like." He pulled the seed away for his gem to be perfectly clean and shining before it morphed back into the bracelet on his wrist.

"I see... So... What are you guys? You said you were going to a ninja school, right?" Yosuke slightly chuckled. "And also Mister Magic Body over there."

"Correct. Except we have real ninja powers." Yosuke's mouth went agape at Sasuke before he closed it, remembering the boy did a fire ball from his mouth. "We use chakra to do various techniques and trained to use weapons and such. So, in a way, we are probably more experienced than you for battle basics, but Naruto's the expert in actually fighting with being a Puella Magi."

"Correct... Odd... I just thought it was some glitch in my ability, but it seems Personas may have some magic and a set of laws those spells follow." Sasuke and Yosuke looked at Naruto, who was had his fingers back in a loop, but holding the Grief Seed in his free hand. "When I looked at Headphone-chan, it gave me some odd information format kind of like the computer games I was looking at for fun while waiting for my glasses. It seems this can prove useful as its showing me what your body can stand spell wise."

"Serious?!" Yosuke asked while Sasuke was lost with what they were saying.

"Yes. From what I can see. Sasuke, you are weak to wind, strong again electricity, and I think dark attacks don't affect you." Both Yosuke and Sasuke were now lost with what Naruto was saying. "Headphone-chan, your strong against wind, but weak again electricity... It's from your Personas."

"Er... Stop... Basically, your saying we could use magic and what you are saying is elemental stuff, right?" Yosuke asked, trying to make his head stop hurting.

"Yep."

"Okay. So, if Sasuke hit me with that Zio attack or whatever his Persona can use, it would hurt me a lot, but not him if a monster used the same attack on him?"

"Correct."

"I see. So our Persona gives us abilities akin to games... Er, Sasuke, it's like your fireball you did, but you do it with your Persona. However, our Persona seem to have elements which they are weak and strong against."

"Oh! Like elemental jutsu!" Sasuke said with getting it. "For example, a water jutsu would usually beat a fire jutsu most times unless a lot of chakra was put into the fire attack. That's actually a pretty good skill, Naruto!"

"Yeah... But it's acting up... It's not showing me all the information... I think." Naruto sighed, closing his eyes.

"Er... What are you doing?" Yosuke asked, confused by the blond.

"Checking myself with Analyze. If I don't have a mirror, I have to close my eyes for it to work... I think..." Both Yosuke and Sasuke nodded, understanding the ability had to work with his sight. "Alright. I got my weaknesses and strengths from Alice. I can reflect back dark spells, but I am weak to light... With that said, that means Sasuke-can and Headphone-chan are partners to cover each other while I am the lone one out."

"I see... You better not make us do all the Shadow fighting if you are taking on those Witches." Yosuke groaned before Sasuke and Yosuke saw Naruto throw the Grief Seed in the air. "What the heck are you doing?!" Both panic, expecting it to hit the ground when it suddenly disappeared. "What the fuck?!"

"Thank you." Both boys hear a child like voice, but saw no one but the three of them.

"You're welcome, Pedo-Fairy." Yosuke and Sasuke looked at Naruto before Sasuke had an idea and put on his glasses he had gotten from Teddie. He was shocked to see sitting near them a white creature with pink markings and eyes that could pass off as a magical girl mascot near them. It had an odd attachment that looked light another pair of ears with a gold ring around them coming from its smaller cat like ears. "Even though my Persona can seemingly can eat Grief Seeds like you, I don't know how to summon her and rather not waste the magic to keep it from hatching till I do."

"Yosuke! Put on your glasses!" Sasuke said while the creature cocked its head at them while Yosuke did so.

"What the hell?! Why is there a stuff animal here?!" Yosuke said, noticing the creature once his glasses were on.

"Hm? You can see me?" The creature asked, a bit confused. "You don't have potential, so that should not be possible." The creature said, it's mouth not even moving while it stretched and talked. "Oh, I managed to come across that new body right near it's death."

"Wait... You mean Saki-senpai?!" Yosuke shouted, glaring at the creature.

"Is that her name of the latest murder victim? Then yes. Your theory you told me was right. When I found the body, she was still alive."

"Why didn't you call the police?!" Yosuke shouted, grabbing the creature up and shaking it. "She could have been sa-"

"She was passed the saving point, am I right?" Yosuke looked at Naruto, noticing him looking straight at the creature with serious eyes.

"Yeah. Her soul was already mostly out of her body when I found her." Yosuke's eyes widen in horror with what the creature said. "So, it was her mind that was taken?"

"Correct... I cannot remember what it is called, though... Because it is relates to Persona... I can't remember." Naruto gripped his head, frustration all over his face. "It's like most of my technical memory of Puella Magi is with me, but none of my Persona knowledge... I just want to remember as it would be more helpful than my Puella Magi knowledge."

"Persona?" The creature asked, cocking it's head and remembered what he said. "Persona can dispose of Grief Seeds?"

"The reason I warned you that messing with human emotions is very dangerous... Due to human emotions, things that your kind cannot comprehend does exist." Sasuke and Yosuke shivered from the hard look on Naruto face. "Though, I think my Persona is unique in the Greif Seed disposal thing. Probably because it's dark element can be close enough to curses to be able to turn those curses into energy instead of being damaged."

"I see...If I had not seen it for myself, I would write that off as a hollow warning that there are things like that." Both looked back at the creature. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kyubey." The creature did a slight bow, not at all afraid of the blond's look in his eyes.

"Kyuubi?" Sasuke asked, remembering the legend of the nine tail fox in his village.

"No. Kyu-bee." The creature corrected Sasuke, "I make contracts with those who have potential to become a Puella Magi."

"So, you make guys like him?" Kyubey nodded at Yosuke. "Can you make us-"

"As he said, you don't have the potential." Naruto said, standing up with an empty bento. "So, don't worry about it. What you should worry about is you have only three minutes left before next class starts."

"Oh, tha-Wait! You little bastard!" Yosuke shouted while Sasuke began woofing down his food. "Damn teleporting ability!"

"It's not teleporting. Teleporting is moving on object to another place while mine can sort of do it, it mainly copies and places the objects." Both boys flinched with realizing Naruto had not left the roof yet. Naruto chuckled while leaving the roof. "It's now 2 minutes and 30 seconds." Yosuke joined Sasuke in woofing down their lunch, trying their best not to choke in the process. They had King Moron for next class.

**-Television-**

"O-Okay, I think that's more than enough of about my sorry escapades." Yosuke groaned, embarrassed after Sasuke gave a deeper summary of what happened in the television to Chie once in the Junes's electronics department. He left out, though, a good bit of the Witch details with not really knowing how to explain that without giving Chie a panic attack.

"If I hadn't seen the place first hand... I'd never have believed a story like that." Chie said, somewhat shocked at the trio.

"Yeah, no kidding." Yosuke chuckled, remembering the Witch. In a way, he was thankful Naruto was going to deal with those. "Anyways, we need to know what's going on inside." Yosuke looked around, realizing there were customers around.

"How? By talking to that Teddie guy?" Chie asked.

"Yeah. Too bad there's so many customers around... I forgot there's a sale in the electronics department today..." Yosuke looked down before his eyes widen with an idea. "I got it! C'mere a second!" Yosuke stood on one side of the television while Naruto and Sasuke stood in the middle. "One of you try sticking your hand in and calling him over. I bet that bear's wandering around the entrance anyway. Hey Chie, stand over here. Make a wall with me. The other one of you who don't put your hand it, stand behind him."

"A wall?" Chie asked but did what she was asked. Sasuke stood back, seeing Naruto put his hand on the television.

'This isn't a good wall...' Sasuke thought, seeing they looked more like watching than blocking others from seeing... But, he heard a slight biting sound from the television and watched Naruto pull his hand back fast to hold the hand he had in the television.

"Wh-what's wrong?!" Yosuke shouted, accidently gaining some attention.

"Shhh! Not so loud, you idiot!" Chie growled, sweating while seeing some customers looking at them before they looked back at what they were doing. "Geez... D-Dude, is that a bite mark?! Are you okay?!" Chie gasped while Sasuke noticed a red bite mark on Naruto's hand.

"I think I am gonna cry." Naruto said in a deadpan.

"I don't see any tears." Chie gave Naruto a cheap look while Yosuke chuckled at Naruto getting hurt. "But, sheesh, that stupid bear must've done it..."

"I hope he does not have something like rabies." All three sweated at Naruto with realizing they had no idea what possible illnesses and such were on the other side. Yosuke and Sasuke already seen curses as a possible aliment to get from the other world.

"Hey, you! We know you're in there!" Chie growled at the screen, somewhat annoyed with this. The screen begain rippling some.

_"Ooh! Ooh! Is this a game?"_ Teddie's voice came through the screen, sounding like it was coming from a radio.

'We can use the TV to talk?!' Sasuke thought in shock.

"No, it's not a game! Can you sense anyone inside there right now?" Yosuke growled as well, though more because the bear was annoying to him.

_"Who's 'anyone?' I'm a lonely little bear like always."_ Teddie sighed, slightly disappointed. _"This land feels so... bear-ren..." _Teddie gave a light chuckle to his joke.

"Shut it!" Chie snapped. "So there's no one iside...? You're sure?"

_"I-I'm not lying! My nose is running as good as ever!"_ Teddie stuttered while Chie frowned.

"I'm gonna go warn Yukiko anyway." Chie said, looking at the boys. "Since she'll be busy this weekend helping out at the inn, I doubt she'd go anywhere alone, but still..."

"Yeah." Yosuke nodded with understanding her worry. "You'll walk with her to school on Monday, right?"

"Sure, I'll go pick her up at her house." Chie nodded as well.

"Maybe we'll find out more on tonight's Midnight Channel." Yosuke suggested, though hoping for the best. "Cross your fingers that this is all just a misunderstanding... What's your cell number? I'll call you when I watch it tonight." Sasuke nodded, pulling out his phone with Naruto doing the same as Yosuke and him. "Alright, don't forget to watch tonight, Uchiha." Sasuke gave a slight glare back at Yosuke.

'Just because I slept through one night!' Sasuke though before noticing Naruto staring back at the television. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"...I sensed something in there." All three now looked at him with worry before he shook his head. "I can't tell what it is, but it isn't Bear-chan as its farther in and I can sense him here... I think the fog in there is affecting my ability to sense Witches and such. Which would explain how I let that one that attack us slip my radar... Though, the feeling I sensed... Is oddly familiar... But, then again, if it is Witches, I am familiar with it..." All three sweated at the blond's blank face before he swung his head back, ruffling her hair in frustration. "Agh! I don't know!... Losing memories sucks." Naruto grumbled, walking away from them with customers looking at the blond stomping off.

"Is he alright?" Chie asked, confused with all the boy just said.

"He's probably trying to figure things out... He did lose his memories in that world." Yosuke looked at Sasuke. "If we explore that world, we'll definitely run into his memories. But, our first objective is to prevent anymore murders and find the culprit." Sasuke nodded in understanding.

"Though, finding his memories could also help with this case." Both looked at Sasuke. "If Naruto said was right, there's also someone or something dragging people into the television from my world's side. However, it's probably safe to say it's not linked to Inaba's murders, but it could become another threat. Also, he's a Persona user before losing his memories, so finding those will help us better understand out situation."

"True... But, his memories are beads and possibly connected to monsters..." Yosuke groaned in disappointment. "It will be like finding a needle in a hay stack... But, then again, so is finding this murderer. I will help you the best I can with both though. Gatling Gun maybe a jerk, but he's good... Once you peel back a lot of jerk layers." Sasuke sweated at Yosuke before nodding and saying his good-byes to go find Naruto. That and they needed to get groceries for dinner tonight.

**-Television-**

"Dojima knows something is up with these cases."

"Uh?" Sasuke looked up, setting up a VCR system he found Dojima had stored in the room to hopefully capture what is on the Midnight Channel tonight. He noticed Naruto had his hand to his head.

"I'm using my Soul Gem to sync with the wires and get into the police radios." Sasuke paled at the blond. "I was only interested in why Dojima was late since the body was found yesterday. They just finished processing the murder scene which was delayed due to fog."

"Oh. So, he'll be home tonight?" Sasuke asked, though really wondering Naruto should just get an internship with the coding forces as soon as they got back to Konoha.

"Yes. He's got to process everything back at the station and should be home before the Midnight Channel airs." Naruto answered before moving his hand from his head. "However, it reinforces what I managed to gather so far. What happens in the Midnight Channel to the victims doesn't 'kills' them right away. Shadows probably devour or remove their minds-No, I mean the psyche, not the brain." Naruto sighed, noticing the horror in Sasuke's face. "But, with ending up roughly thrown outside that world once done, because their bodies are now no longer with a mind, it does not take much to kill them. My guess since they were both upside down, the blood rushed to their heads and cause hemorrhaging to do the final blow. If they were upright, they probably would be alive... But, no longer there."

"No longer... You mean... Like in a coma?" Sasuke asked, getting what Naruto was trying to say.

"Correct... Well, I think... It's just... familiar to me... Which is why I wish I had my knowledge on Persona." Naruto groaned, flopping onto the couch. "Since they were upside down, the police will think the hemorrhaging is post mortem and not realize it was the finishing blow. When the soul no longer has a strong hold on a body due to the mind is gone... Well, you know."

"I understand." Sasuke sighed, testing the VCR on the news and smirked to see it working. "But, I do have a question. Since you're a Puella Magi or whatever, why is it at least ninja knowing about them? I mean, it's kind of hard to hide monsters like that from ninja."

"Actually, it is. They hid themselves and adults fall victim to them without ever knowing it before dying or being saved. Though, many Puella Magi will using some magic to change their memories as some under their influence will do horrible things to either themselves or others and keep those memories... And I guess you would from what you felt before."

"Yeah... Good point." Sasuke said, though wondering if he meant the Witch or the Uchiha Massacre. "Hey, do you know how many Puella Magi are in Konoha?" Sasuke asked, curious of them. From what he seen with Naruto, they had to be in the few.

"No clue as I don't have my memories. However, with how big Konoha is, there is quite a few. Territory is important to Puella Magi and once they stake their claim, they will often protect it and only let those they trust hunt there." Naruto looked back, noticing the rain hitting the window hard.

"Wait... Territory? Don't Puella Magi work together?... Like in the magical girl series and such?" Sasuke asked, trying his best to remember what he knew on magical girls from hearing girls in class talking about them, though from fiction from what he remembered as it did not match what he seen.

"Some do... But, not all Witches drop Grief Seeds. Those with smaller Soul Gems often use teamwork to make up for power compared to those who have bigger and stronger gems. Even then, conflict will always pop up due to that one issue. There are Puella Magi who only go after Witches, waiting for Familiars to eat people and become Witches to insure they have Grief Seeds while others want to protect those around them and fight both Familiars and Witches." Sasuke looked at Naruto with a pit of horror forming in his stomach. "Fights between Puella Magi is not uncommon. But, that is how things are. There is no true good or bad. It just depends on the individual. The same can be said on ninja or every human."

"...Have... you fought-"

"Alone? Yes... With others?... I don't know. Those memories are missing. But, I at least have technical memories to match up with possibly fighting with others as well as against others." Naruto sat forward. "That's also why I think I chose the become a ninja. It is the same with military and politics. Humans always know how to turn nothing into some kind of problem. I am already used to such messes, so doing it as a ninja would be normal for me." Naruto looked at Sasuke, noticing his wide eyes with mixed emotions. "What? You thought-"

"No!" Sasuek shook his head before putting a sheepish grin. "No... Er... I am going to write in my diary since it's been a while. It's best I keep a log of what is going on even though I no longer have to worry about my brain messing up." Sasuke glared at Naruto who simply shrugged his shoulder and change the channel on the television to some game show to let the time past, Sasuke pulling out his diary and sitting at the desk.

**April 16, 2011 (for several days)**

**Dear Diary,**

**A lot has happen and that is just an understatement in itself. I will start with the good. I made some friends. Yosuke is a good guy, though a bit annoying and a magnet for trouble. School isn't too bad as long as I keep out of King Moron's way. Not that Naruto has to worry with his mouth and personality easily defeating him. Though, it seems only weird teachers teach at Yasogami High School. I also discovered where Naruto's memories are and a possible means to get home.**

**The bad? There was another murder, Yosuke's sempai who found the other murdered person. She showed up on the Midnight Channel the day before she died. I got my head stuck in the television the night she appeared and everyone decided to try it out at Junes after I told them. We ended up in another world, which is where the sempai died after we left. The day we found out, Yosuke rushed to Junes and Naruto, Sasuke, and I entered the television prepared. The day before, we ran into strange enemies called Shadows which Naruto and I fought. However, with the second trip, I discovered my Persona and we fought Yosuke's Shadow after he denied it and it went berserk. He accepted it in the end, however, we also ran into a Witch, a monster that is a curse as Naruto calls it. Naruto dealt with it with his Persona, though Yosuke and I learned to leave those to Naruto since he fights them as a Puella Magi. It seems his memories are being collect up by Shadows and Witches and those affect them as the Shadows and Witches with the were... off is the best I can explain them as. And scary. If someone wanted to make on scary as hell genjutsu, they should take a note from Witches. However, a Puella Magi is basically a magical girl, or boy in Naruto's case, that gain magic to fight Witches. Though, it is nothing like the fiction stories I heard girls talking about at the academy. From how I seen Naruto fights and his skills, I would not be surprise if the instant he is put on the battlefield, he would put whoever was makes Rookie of the Year to shame as I at least now know he's just not good at learning from books and hence his deadlast title. However, I remember Naruto saying the Witches might be coming from Konoha and Puella Magi were possibly being dragged in. Is there similar murders happening in Konoha? I can't tell with no means to communicate with Konoha...**

**However, something Naruto mentioned to me when I asked if Puella Magi worked together. He said that humans can make nothing into a problem to bicker over. It made me realize something. Days... No, months before the Uchiha Massacre, I notice a lot of my clan was on edge. They did their best to hide it and it fooled me when I was eight... But, thinking back, I realize something was going on. I also remember sometimes cold looks from villagers towards my clan, always to older members and never children... And, if I remember how loyal that... No, my brother was to both Konoha and the clan... I think he may have be forced to make a choice between the two. The way Naruto sometimes acts seem so familiar to me now makes sense. My brother did the same sometimes, probably trying to hide his own bloody sins from me. And the reason why he demanded me to hate him. He knew he was taking everything from me to insure not just my safety, but also possibly Konoha's as well. He wanted to make sure I did not turn on Konoha as it might have been involved with that choice. He only wanted me to focus on him as he sacrificed himself. I don't know if Konoha is the case for it or not... But, I want to know the truth now more so than ever. Ninja do live in the shadows and only I know realize exactly what my clan and village possibly deals with.**

"Sasuke. It's almost time." Sasuke looked up from his diary and noticed Naruto was right with seeing the clock closing onto midnight.

"Thanks." Sasuke shut the diary and got over to television. He hit record on the VCR before standing back. "Let's hope Yosuke was right and nothing shows up." Both looked at the off television. Just seconds before it was midnight, it flickered on.

_"G-ood evening!"_ Sasuke blinked in surprise to Yukiko on the screen, but wearing a princess dress and holding a mic instead of her kimono. _"Tonight, I'm gonna score myself a hot stud!"_ Yukiko did a fake gun with her hand and a gunshot sound was heard when she moved it.

'Nani?' Sasuke thought, though a slight blush forming on his cheeks.

_"Welcome to 'Not a Dream, Not a Hoax!'"_ Yukiko chimed while swinging the mic around happily. _"'Princess Yukiko's Hunt for Her Prince Charming'!"_ Sasuke raised an eyebrow when somehow a floating logo banner with what Yukiko said on it as cheesy victory music went off.

_"And I came prepared!"_ Yukiko winked. "_My lacy unmentionables are ready to go!_" Yukiko patted her lower area, making Sasuke's blush even deep on his face. _"Just like my heart!"_ Yukiko formed a heart with her hands and then drew a heart that appeared before her. _"I'm out to catch a whole harem of only the best! There's even one possible prince before me!" _Both were shock when a spot light appeared before Yukiko, exposing another person... Before they heard a whistle coming from that person.

_"Oie! Do you think it's funny causin' a commotion like this at school?!"_ A silver hair girl around Yukiko's age shouted, her red eyes glaring right at her. She was wearing the Yasogami High School uniform and had her hair up in a ponytail. _"What is this?! A TV set?! Ya better tear it down right now! The student council didn't approve this at all! As student body president, I'm shutting this down!"_ She did a thumb down while shouting.

_"Tch heh! My heart is racing, my female knight! However, you got to catch me first as I have lots of studs to find and so little time! Here I go!"_ Yukiko chimed while running into the castle school.

_"Wha?! Get back here, ya hoodlum! Don't run in the halls!" _The school girl shouted while running into the castle school as well before the television went off.

"..." Sasuke blinked, trying to process what he saw.

"Sasuke," Sasuke looked at Naruto, noticing the blond was looking at him but lower. "Why is there a large lump in your pants?" Sasuke recoiled in shock before realizing exactly what Naruto meant.

"Baka!" Sasuke landed a kick to Naruto's cheek. "Why the fuck are you looking down there?!" Sasuke hissed lowly, making sure not to wake Nanako as Naruto managed to catch himself from falling.

"I just happened to look and saw it... Why-"

"Birds and bees later!" Sasuke hissed with a blush over his face, remembering the blond lost his memories. Also, Naruto did pranks and skipped classes sometimes, so the possibility he missed the class about girls' and boys' differences and didn't have that important information in his technical memories was kind of high.

"Birds and bees?" Naruto asked, a confused look on his face before Sasuke heard his cell phone going off and answered it.

_"H-Hey, did you see that?!" _Yosuke gasped on the phone. _"That was Yukiko-san for sure! It looked like her... I mean, she even said her name! But didn't the stuff she saw saying sound weird?! Also, who was that with her? I think I would remember someone like if they were our student council president! And it looked like they were on some kind of low-budget TV show... Was it like this before, too? What's going on...?"_ Sasuke took the chance with Yosuke finally taking a breath to speak.

"I don't know. Try to contact Chie." Sasuke sighed, remembering he did not have Yukiko's number. 'But, what is going on? This is definitely not like before.'

_"Y-You're right! Let's get her to contact Yukiko-san!"_ Yosuke agreed, though his voice shaky. _"Tomorrow's Sunday, so let's meet up at Junes first thing in the morning!"_ Sasuke answered back in agreement before shutting his phone so Yosuke could call Chie.

"..." Sasuke rewound the tape after stopping it's recording and once it stopped, he played it with the television on. However, to his shock, he only go white screen. "What the hell?"

"I see..." Sasuke looked at Naruto. "So, I am not the only one who has to 'abide' by rules. Our killer definitely has a deity behind his or her back."

"Seriously?" Sasuke asked, though what Naruto seriously seemed very possible now. Especially with seeing demons the day before.

"Correct. Worse, it's trashing the Law of Cycles. Deities trashing on another deity's territory is nasty business. Both that killer and murderer are playing a very dangerous game." Sasuke nodded, understanding from remembering legends of people going against god, "And we're now also part of the game as well." Sasuke's eyes widen in shock. "However, at least now I got my answer to that familiar feeling when I had my hand in the television. I can't say for sure due to I haven't sensed a Puella Magi here in Inaba, but since the feeling was familiar... I think that other girl was a Puella Magi."

"What?!" Sasuke gasped, kind of shocked, "But, she was wearing-"

"Remember that Witch that attack you?" Sasuke nodded, gulping from Naruto's serious tone, "As well as the model of the shopping district and that announcer's room?" Sasuke nodded, "If I understand enough, that world reflects people's thoughts and make a replica of where they see their world. However, you think what would happen if two people, especially one who has magic powers, would happen?"

"No way! The places fused!" Sasuke said in realization, "And their behavior?"

"Probably a side effect from the Puella Magi being trapped there. Her acting makes me believe she might be under some kind of illusion either by a Witch or maybe even who or what dragged us in. It isn't hard for a Puella Magi to change their clothes with magic. However, if the Witches here in Inaba and the ones I seen the Midnight Channel are to follow, those Witches will go straight for her and Yukiko will be right in the crossfire."

"I see! Then, we better go in tonight!" Sasuke gripped his fist. "We'll go get Yosuke and go! You're at least good a lock picking?" Sasuke asked, wanting to make sure he was not the only one breaking into Junes if they get caught.

"I can easily get us in with my ability. Simply cutting and pasting is the best way to avoid the whole paradox/fallacy rules of my powers, though it takes some time... Wait. We may have an issue." Naruto said, going to the television. "If my last attempt to enter the television at this time was stopped..." Naruto put his hand to the television and it suddenly sparked while Naruto drew back his hand, the screen flashing with some red in a foggy area before going off again.

"What the?!" Sasuke gasped, "Are you alright?!"

"Yeah... But, it prove my hunch. Though whatever deity set this up, we are allowed to investigate the other world on its terms, not ours." Sasuke nodded, though was shocked to see the burns on Naruto's hand... Before seeing it shift colors before appearing as his normal hand. "Don't worry. I used my ability to heal my hand." Sasuke sheepishly grinned, wondering what else the blond could do. "However, if I remember correctly from what the Bear said, the Shadows are not violent till the fog lifts. The same might be for Witches as that one attacked us after we been in there for a while. They should be at least safe till tomorrow morning."

"I see... So, we best rest up to be ready in the morning." Sasuke sighed, feeling the fatigue already setting in him even though wide awake. Even without going back into the television world, this day been a drain.

"Though, before that... What is this 'Birds and Bees' you spoke of and what does it have to do with that lump that was in your pants?" Sasuke blushed at Naruto's straightforward question.

"Er... Its... How... Un... Sex... Oh, god..." Sasuke groaned, trying his best to think of how to explain this to Naruto. However, it was kind of awkward to Sasuke who wasn't too experienced with explaining it himself since he didn't know much except the basics.

"Sex? You mean the intercourse between male and female in order to produce a child?" Sasuke looked at Naruto with shock and a flush face though he did nod. "Oh! Now I get it! That lump in your pants was how males show excitement for doing wanting to have sex! I never seen it before so I didn't realize it at first!" Naruto then blinked in confusion. "Wait... Why were you sexually excited seeing Inn-chan in a dress and that girl in a school uniform... Isn't underwear and nud-"

"Shut it. Shut it now." Sasuke covered the blond's mouth. "Boob shot and lacey unmentionables was what did it. Okay? It does not take much for someone like me, who is still trying to figure girls out, to get easily turned on. Which I wish sometimes the girls at the academy realized the problems they caused me with how they dress sometimes." Sasuke hissed, embarrassed by the fact he was indeed interested in girls, but had no idea how to approach them with how girls at the academy were and his own vengeance fueled training.

"So... You're a perv?" Naruto asked, moving Sasuke's hand.

"Hell no. I just have a hard time control hormones! We're going through puberty and even though I gotta revive my clan, I ain't having a kid at twelve unless I really, REALLY love the gal who having it!" Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Enough. Sleep. And one word of this to the others, and you might find yourself a magical girl."

"You're threat has been denied. Cutting off my balls is very hard to do if you could first catch me and I can easily repair the damage." Sasuke glared at the blond. "However, since this involves sex, I will leave it be. From what little technical memory I have on normal interactions, that is a touche fact with humans."

"Good. Sleep." Sasuke sighed, "But, what are you, a robot?"

"Hm? Why do you ask?" Sasuke sweated at the blond.

"Nothing. Get your futon and sleep on the other side of the room tonight." Sasuke growled, not wanting another surprise when he woke up in the morning.

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Endnote-I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! As I stated in the authornote, starting with this chapter release, my updates will be slowing down and may not be steady as I originally planned.


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